Ergodic channel capacity analysis of the hybrid satellite-terrestrial single frequency network

In this paper, the ergodic channel capacity is analyzed for a hybrid satellite-terrestrial single frequency network (SFN), which consists of a satellite (the source node), a mobile terminal (the destination node), and several gap fillers (the relay nodes) on the ground. The satellite-relay (S-R) link and the satellite-destination (S-D) link experience independent Rician fading, and the relay-destination (R-D) link experiences Nakagami-m fading. Based on the classical conclusions in multipath fading channels, the exact closed-form expression of the ergodic channel capacity for a hybrid satellite-terrestrial SFN with the decode-and-forward cooperative protocol is derived. The numerical results agree well with the simulation results. As the total transmit power of all nodes is assumed to be limited, the performance of hybrid satellite-terrestrial SFN is better than that of the no-relay system when the S-D link is in heavy-fading.