Adaptive relay selection technique for cooperative network over Nakagami fading channels

In this paper, we propose a new multi-node relay network, that works on the Amplify-and-Forward protocol, to select the most optimal path towards the destination; thus adaptively setting the number of relays to be involved in the cooperation. Nakagami-2 fading channel is considered in the modeling and Instantaneous channel state information (CSI) from the destination is used as the selection criteria at the relays. Locations of the relays and distances between them are taken into account for an improved signal to noise ratio (SNR) with reduction in the bit error rate (BER). Moreover, spatial diversity is applied on the destination using maximal ratio combining (MRC). An analysis of the different spatial diversity techniques is done to find the best suited technique and simulation results for a much less BER over a 10⁶ number of symbols in the input is presented.