PEP bound for multiple relay transmission over Nakagami-m fading channels

In this paper, we exploit the concept of space-time coding technique for a cooperative communication system with multiple-relay wireless network. A two-stage protocol is used with the relay terminals operating in amplify-and-forward mode (AF). The analysis in this paper uses the versatile Nakagami fading channels in contrast to the Rayleigh model used in most of the previous work. Taking these effects into account, an upper bound for pairwise error probability (PEP) is derived first for single-relay case. Subsequently, it is extended to multiple-relay case for the orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC). Numerical results are provided to verify the accuracy of the formulation.