Mitigating channel estimation error via cooperative communications

Channel estimation error problem is among the main causes of performance degradation in wireless networks. In this paper, we investigate the impact of cooperative communications on mitigating the effect of channel estimation error. Two main performance criteria, namely, the traditional outage probability and the proposed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gap ratio, are utilized to characterize such impact. The SNR gap ratio measures the reduction in the SNR due to channel estimation error. Taking into consideration the channel estimation error, we show that the outage probability is reduced by utilizing cooperative transmission. We also show that cooperative transmission results in lower SNR gap ratio compared to that of the direct transmission. Thus, cooperative transmission is less susceptible to the effect of channel estimation error compared to direct transmission. Finally, we illustrate that increasing the number of cooperating relays reduces the effect of the channel estimation error more.