Amplify-and-forward relay networks for bit-interleaved space-time codes

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel Amplify-and-Forward (AF) cooperative diversity scheme by employing the combination of bit-interleave coded modulation (BICM) and orthogonal space-time block coding (STC). The frame of the wireless network is described and the pairwise error probability (PEP) of AF protocol is derived. Based on the PEP, exact expressions of bit-error-rate (BER) are investigated over dissimilar Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results corroborate the analysis and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.