Exact Symbol Error Rate of a Cooperative Network

with Multiple Antennas and OSTBC

Guangping Li
Faculty of Information Engineering
Guangdong University of Technology
Guangzhou, 510006, China
Email: ligp@gdut.edu.cn
Steven D. Blostein
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Queens University
Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada
Email: steven.blostein@queensu.ca
AbstractA cooperative amplify and forward relay
network with orthogonal space-time block coding is an-
alyzed for a multiple antenna source and destination
and single antenna relay. Unlike previous studies, the
source-destination direct link is considered. Symbol error
rate expressions for MPSK and MQAM are derived and
compared with Monte Carlo simulations.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well-known that MIMO technology can improve
link reliability through exploiting space diversity. Or-
thogonal space time block coding (OSTBC), a form of
space diversity in MIMO communications, has attracted
tremendous attention and been incorporated into emerg-
ing MIMO standards [1] as it does not need channel
state information at the transmitter (CSIT) and has low
decoding complexity [2]. The use of relays achieves
cooperative diversity through node collaboration, as well
as extends the coverage of networks without increasing
transmit power [3].
Recently, the study on OSTBC has been extended to
relay systems [4], [5]. A two-hop amplify and forward
(AF) relay network with an OSTBC transmit strategy in
which the source and destination are both equipped with
multiple antennas while the relay has a single antenna
appears in [4]. The end-to-end average bit error rate
(BER) performance is investigated in [4]. However, the
method in [4] is only suitable for systems with the
same number of antennas at the source and destination.
Also, in [4], the direct communication link between
the source and destination is ignored. In [5], the direct
communication case is considered but only a single
antenna is assumed at the destination.
In this paper, the similar system model is assumed as
in [4], [6]. Here we consider the case that the direct
source-to-destination communication link is available,
i.e., a single-relay cooperative network with multiple
antennas and OSTBC. First, the received SNR is derived
for arbitrary antenna congurations at the source and
destination. Exact average SER expressions for MPSK
and MQAM are presented by the moment generation
function (MGF) approach. Finally, it is showed that
the derived expressions match those obtained by Monte
Carlo simulations.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
A cooperative network with a single relay is consid-
ered where there are N
S
antennas at the source, N
D
antennas at the destination, and a single antenna at the
relay. To make the relay as simple as possible, the
AF relaying protocol is employed. Unlike [4], [6], it
is assumed that the direct communication link between
the source and destination is available here. Also, half-
duplex transmission is used, i.e., the relay cannot trans-
mit and receive simultaneously in the same time slot or
frequency band. An OSTBC transmission strategy con-
taining K complex symbols x
1
, x
2
, , x
K
and a block
length of T is utilized at the source to achieve space
diversity. Specially, the OSTBC transmission matrix with
the highest possible code rate is employed for two, three
and four transmit antennas at the source as is given in
[2, Eqs. (31), (39) and (40)]. During the rst slot, the
received 1T signal vector at the relay and the received
N
D
T signal matrix at the destination can be written
as, respectively
y
R
= h
SR
X
S
+n
R
(1)
Y
D1
= H
SD
X
S
+E
D1
(2)
where X
S
denotes a N
S
T transmission matrix, h
SR
is the 1 N
S
Rayleigh fading complex channel gain
vector from the source to the relay, H
SD
is the N
D

N
S
Rayleigh fading complex channel gain matrix from
the relay to the destination, n
R
CN(0,
R
I) is the
1 T Gaussian noise vector at the relay and E
D1
=
{n
ij
D1
}
NDT
is the N
D
T noise matrix during the rst
slot at the destination where n
ij
D1
CN(0,
2
D1
) denotes
the noise at the ith receive antenna during the jth symbol
period. During the second slot, the received N
D
T
signal matrix at the destination can be written as
Y
D2
= h
RD
x
R
+E
D2
(3)
where h
RD
denotes the N
D
1 Rayleigh fading channel
gain vector from the relay to the destination, E
D2
=
{n
ij
D2
}
NDT
is the N
D
T noise matrix during the
second slot at the destination where n
ij
D2
CN(0,
2
D2
),
and x
R
= Gy
R
denotes the signal sent by the relay
where G =
_
PR
P
S
N
S
hSR
2
+
2
R
is the exact relay gain, and
where P
S
and P
R
are power constraints at the source
and relay, respectively. If we ignore the noise at the
relay,

G =
_
PR
P
S
N
S
hSR
2
which we denote as the ideal
relay gain [7], and which is amenable to mathematical
manipulation. Later, it will be observed from simulations
that the ideal relay gain provides a tight lower bound
on average SER in the case of medium to high SNR.
Therefore, the ideal relay gain is used for analysis
purposes in this paper. Substituting x
R
=

Gy
R
into (2),
then combining (2) and (3) yields the following received
signal at the destination:
Y =
_
Y
D1
Y
D2
_
=
_
H
SD
h
RD

Gh
SR
_
X
S
+
_
E
D1
h
RD

Gn
R
+E
D2
_
.
(4)
Using maximum likelihood (ML) detection of OSTBCs
for the case of spatially colored noise given in [8], the
received SNR is obtained as
Theorem 1: The received SNR of a cooperative AF
OSTBC transmission is given by

tot
=
T
K
_
_
P
S
H
SD

2
F

2
D1
N
S
+
PShSR
2
NS
2
R
PRhRD
2

2
D2
PShSR
2
NS
2
R
+
PRhRD
2

2
D2
_
_
=
T
K
(
3
+

1

1
+
2
) =
T
K
(
3
+
4
) =
T
K

(5)
where
1
=
PShSR
2
NS
2
R
,
2
=
PRhRD
2

2
D2
,
3
=
PSHSD
2
F

2
D1
NS
,

4
=
12
1+2
, =
3
+
4
, T denotes the block length
of the OSTBC, and K denotes the number of complex
symbols contained in the OSTBC.
Proof: It can be observed from (4) that the noise at
the destination is temporally white but spatially colored,
i.e., the columns of noise matrix
_
E
D1
h
RD

Gn
R
+E
D2
_
are
independent and Gaussian with the covariance matrix
=
_
1

2
D1
I 0
0 (

G
2

2
R
h
RD
h
H
RD
+
2
D2
I)
_
. Using the ML
detection method, the received SNR can be written as

tot
= Tr{H
H
eff

1
H
eff
}E[|x|
2
] (6)
where Tr() denotes trace of a matrix,
1
is the inverse
of , H
eff
=
_
H
SD
h
RD

Gh
SR
_
is the effective channel
matrix, and E[|x|
2
] denotes average power of a complex-
valued symbol where E[|x|
2
] = E[|x
1
|
2
] = =
E[|x
K
|
2
] is assumed in OSTBC. Substituting for H
eff
and and using the Matrix Inversion Lemma, (6) can
be written as

tot
=
_
_
H
SD

2
F

2
D1
+
PRhSR
2
hRD
2

2
R

2
D2
PShSR
2
NS
2
R
+
PRhRD
2

2
D2
_
_
E[|x|
2
].
(7)
In OSTBC, N
S
KE[|x|
2
] = P
S
T. Substituting
N
S
KE[|x|
2
] = P
S
T into (7) leads to the received SNR
(5).
III. EXACT AVERAGE SER ANALYSIS
The following well-known MGF-SER relationships
are used, respectively, to calculate exact SER expressions
for MPSK and MQAM [9]:

P
MPSK
=
1

_
(M1)/M
0
M

(
Tg
MPSK
K sin
2

) d (8)
where g
MPSK
= sin
2
(/M), and

P
MQAM
=
4

M 1

M
)
_
/2
0
M

(
3T
2K(M 1)sin
2

)d

M 1

M
)
2
_
/4
0
M

(
3T
2K(M 1)sin
2

)d.
(9)
It is clear in (5) that
3
and
4
are mutually independent
random variables. The MGF of amounts to the mul-
tiplication of MGFs of
3
and
4
. As h
ij
SD
is complex
Gaussian distributed where h
ij
SD
is an element of H
SD
,
it is readily found that
PS|h
ij
SD
|
2

2
D1
is exponentially dis-
tributed. Setting the exponential parameter of
PS|h
ij
SD
|
2

2
D1
equal to , the MGF of
3
is therefore given by
M
3
(s) = (
N
S
N
S
+s
)
NSND
. (10)
The closed-form expression for the MGF of
4
is given
by the following theorem.
Theorem 2: The MGF of
4
is given by
M
4
(s) =
2
(N
S
1)!
ND1

p=0
1
p!
p

i=0
_
p
i
_
NS1

k=0
_
N
S
1
k
_
(N
S
)
N
S
+k+i
2

2p+N
S
ki
2
[( +N
S
)

_
4

N
S
_
NSki
_
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
_
p+2NSki+1

(p + 2N
S
k i + 1) (p +k +i + 1)
(p +N
S
+
3
2
)
F(p+ 2N
S
ki+ 1, N
S
k i+
1
2
; p+N
S
+
3
2
;
+N
S
+s 2

N
S
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
) + 2
_
N
S

_
4

N
S
_
NSki1
_
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
_
p+2NSki

(p + 2N
S
k i) (p +k +i + 2)
(p +N
S
+
3
2
)
F(p + 2N
S
k i, N
S
k i
1
2
; p +N
S
+
3
2
;

+N
S
+s 2

N
S
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
)]
2
(N
S
1)!
ND1

p=1
1
p!
p

i=0
_
p
i
_
NS1

k=0
_
N
S
1
k
_
(N
S
)
N
S
+k+i
2

2p+N
S
ki
2
(p +i +k)

_
4

N
S
_
NSki
_
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
_
p+2NSki
(p + 2N
S
k i) (p +k +i)
(p +N
S
+
1
2
)
F(p + 2N
S
k i, N
S
k i +
1
2
; p +N
S
+
1
2
;
+N
S
+s 2

N
S
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
)

2
(N
S
1)!
NS1

k=1
_
N
S
1
k
_
(N
S
)
N
S
+k
2

N
S
k
2

_
4

N
S
_
NSk
_
+N
S
+s + 2

N
S
_
2NSk
(2N
S
k) (k)
(N
S
+
1
2
)
F(2N
S
k, N
S
k+
1
2
; N
S
+
1
2
;
+N
S
+s2

N
S
+N
S
+s+2

N
S
)
(11)
where () denotes the gamma function and F(, ; ; )
is the Gauss hypergeometric function.
Before proving Theorem 2, the following lemma for
the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of
4
is rst
proved.
Lemma 1: The CDF of
4
is given by
CDF
4
() = 1
2
(N
S
1)!
ND1

p=0
p

i=0
_
p
i
_
NS1

k=0
_
N
S
1
k
_

1
p!
(N
S
)
N
S
+k+i
2

2p+N
S
ki
2
e
(NS+)

p+NS
K
|NSki|
(2
_
N
S
)
(12)
where K

() denotes the modied Bessel function of

second kind and order .
Proof of Lemma 1: As h
j
SR
and h
j
RD
are complex
Gaussian distributed where h
j
SR
and h
j
RD
are elements
of h
SR
and h
RD
, respectively, it is readily showed
that
PS|h
j
SR
|
2

2
R
and
PR|h
j
RD
|
2

2
D2
are exponentially distributed.
Setting rate parameters of
PS|h
j
SR
|
2

2
R
and
PR|h
j
RD
|
2

2
D2
equal
to and , respectively, the probability density function
(PDF) of
1
and the CDF of
2
are, respectively [10],
f
1
(x) =
N
NS
S
x
NS1
(N
S
1)!
e
NSx

NS
(13)
CDF
2
(y) = 1 e
y
ND1

p=0
(y)
p
p!
. (14)
The CDF of
4
is
P(

1

1
+
2
< ) =
_

0
P(

2
x

2
+x
< )f
1
(x) dx
=
_

0
f
1
(x) dx +
_

P(
2
<
x
x
)f
1
(x) dx.
(15)
Setting = x , substituting (13) and (14) into the
above equation and through some mathematical manip-
ulations yields
1
N
S
NS
(N
S
1)!

NS
ND1

p=0
p

i=0
_
p
i
_
NS1

k=0

p+k+i
p!
e
(+NS)
_

0

NSki1
e
NS

d.
(16)
Using [11, Eq.(3.324)] and through straightforward
mathematical manipulations leads to the CDF (12) of

4
.
Proof of Theorem 2: Taking the derivative of
(12) with respect to and using the expression for the
derivative of the modied Bessel function given in [11,
Eq.(8.486.12)] yields the PDF of
4
as follows:
f
4
() =
2
(N
S
1)!
ND1

p=0
1
p!
p

i=0
_
p
i
_
NS1

k=0
_
N
S
1
k
_
(N
S
)
N
S
+k+i
2

2p+N
S
ki
2
[( +N
S
)
NS+p
e
(NS+)
K
|NSki|
(2
_
N
S
) + 2
_
N
S

NS+p
e
(NS+)
K
|NSki1|
(2
_
N
S
)
(p +i +k)
NS+p1
e
(NS+)
K
|NSki|
(2
_
N
S
)].
(17)
Taking the Laplace transform of (17) and using [11,
Eq.(6.621.3)] yields MGF (11) in Theorem 2.
A note on computation: Though lengthy, the SER per-
formance is straightforwardly calculated. Multiplying the
MGF of
3
, Eq. (10), by the MGF of
4
, Eq. (11), leads
to the MGF of in Eq. (5). Then substituting the MGF of
into (8) and (9), and through single-variable numerical
integration, yields the exact SER expressions for MPSK
and MQAM, respectively. Note that in evaluation of
the MGF of , Gauss hypergeometric function can be
readily calculated by the special function hypergeom
contained in the Symbolic Math Toolbox of Matlab.
IV. NUMERICAL RESULTS
In the following Monte Carlo simulations, we assume
equal transmit SNR: P
S
/
2
R
= P
S
/
2
D1
= P
R
/
2
D2
=
SNR
T
. 1/(SNR
T
), 1/(SNR
T
) and 1/(SNR
T
) are
set to be each uniformly distributed between 0 and 1.
Fig. 1 shows comparisons between Monte Carlo simu-
lations and the analytical results for modulation schemes
with 4PSK and 16QAM. It is clear from Fig. 1 that the
simulations very closely match the analyses. In fact, the
ideal relay gain provides a tight lower bound on average
SER even in the case of medium SNR.
0 5 10 15
10
6
10
4
10
2
10
0
SNR (dB)
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
S
E
R


Analytical
Monte Carlo(ideal relay gain)
Monte Carlo(exact relay gain)
4PSK
16QAM
Figure 1. Average SER of the system with 4PSK and 16QAM.
V. CONCLUSION
This letter focuses on the derivation of exact SER
expression of a cooperative AF OSTBC transmissions
over Rayleigh fading channels. First, the received SNR
expression of the system is derived. Exact average SER
expressions for MPSK and MQAM are obtained by
determinating the MGF of . Monte Carlo simulations
conrm the analyses presented.
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