Performance evaluation of adaptive modulation decode-and-forward cooperative wireless communication system with best-relay selection

In this paper the performance evaluation of a decode-and-forward (DAF) cooperative communication system based on combined best relay selection and adaptive modulation (AM) is investigated. These investigations are focused on evaluating the performance of the proposed system over independent non-identical Rayleigh fading channels in terms of bit-error rate (BER) and comparing the system performance with direct transmission and fixed-DAF cooperative with single relay. The simulations results using MATLAB^® show that the cooperative scheme achieves desired bit-error rate (BER) with lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values and higher spectral efficiency as compared to AM direct transmission and AM fixed-DAF cooperative with single relay.