Performance of distributed turbo-coded cooperative networks with multiple dual-hop relays over Nakagami-m fading channels

We study the performance of distributed turbo-coded cooperative networks with multiple dual-hop relays over both identical and non-identical Nakagami-m slow fading channels. All the relays are equipped with error detection capabilities and only the reliable relays retransmit to the destination. In this paper, we derive the union bounds on the bit-error rate (BER) of the proposed scheme using the transfer function bounding and the limit-before-average techniques. Moreover, through the derived pairwise-error probability (PEP), we analyze the asymptotic behavior of this system at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is noted that the achievable diversity order depends on the number of cooperating relays and the fading parameters. Finally, performance evaluation of the proposed scheme is presented via error bounds and Monte Carlo simulations.