Outage probability of MIMO AF relay more tractable form serving as a tight bound as follows:

networks over Nakagami-m fading channels g1 g2

gD = j (2)
g1 + g2
T.Q. Duong, G.C. Alexandropoulos, T.A. Tsiftsis and
H.-J. Zepernick
where j = g/(n1 Rc ) and gℓ = Sni=1
ℓ
(Snj=1
3
|hℓij |)2 . Furthermore, applying
the square expansion yields
The outage probability (OP) of multiple-input multiple-output
(MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks using orthogonal  2
space-time block code is investigated. In particular, a closed-form 
n3 
n3 n
3 −1 
n3
tight lower bound expression for the OP over independently but not |hℓij | = |hℓij |2 + 2 (|hℓij | × |hℓik |) (3)
necessarily identically distributed Nakagami-m fading channels is j=1 j=1 j=1 k=j+1
derived. Moreover, an asymptotic approximation for OP which
reveals the coding and diversity gains is presented. The analytical Using a similar approach as for Rayleigh fading [4] and after some
expressions are validated by Monte-Carlo simulations. manipulations not shown here owing to space limitation, the product
of two i.n.i.d. gamma RVs can be approximated as
Introduction: Recently, the performance of orthogonal space-time
block code (OSTBC) transmission in multiple-input multiple-output |hℓij | × |hℓik |  aℓijk (|hℓij |2 + |hℓik |2 ) (4)
(MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks has attracted great
interest in the research community (see, e.g. [1, 2] and references where parameters aℓijk’s are given by
therein). In [1], the bit error probability (BEP) of dual-hop OSTBC
transmission, where a channel state information (CSI)-assisted AF G(mℓij + 1/2) G(mℓik + 1/2)
relay is equipped with a single antenna, has been derived for Rayleigh aℓijk =
G(mℓij ) G(mℓik )
fading channels. Closed-form expressions and tight approximations  (5)
for the outage probability (OP) and symbol error probability (SEP) Vℓij Vℓik 1
× √
have been derived for independently but not identically distributed (Vℓij + Vℓik ) mℓij mℓik
(i.n.i.d.) Nakagami-m fading channels [2]. The aforementioned
studies, however, only focus on the CSI-assisted AF relay with a By substituting (4) in (3), we obtain
single antenna. In [3], the benefit of coverage extension for dual-hop
AF relay networks utilising multiple antennas in each node has been  2
investigated. Although the end-to-end instantaneous signal-to-noise 
n3 
n3
|hℓij |  bℓi |hℓij |2 (6)
ratio (SNR) has been obtained for both the CSI-assisted and semi- j=1 j=1
blind AF relay, the work in [3] has analysed only the case of the
semi-blind AF relay and focused on Rayleigh fading channels. To the 3 −1 n3
where bℓi = 1 + 2Snk=1 St=k+1 aℓitk . Then, using (6) results in gℓ 
best of our knowledge, there is no previously published work analysing Sni=1
ℓ
Snj=1
3
bℓi |hℓij |2 . For the notational simplicity, let us denote Nℓ ¼
the performance of dual-hop MIMO OSTBC transmission with multiple nℓn3 and the following symbols {gℓt }Nt=1 ℓ
, {m(ℓt ) }Nt=1
ℓ
, and {
g(ℓt ) }Nt=1
ℓ
such
antennas employed at the transceiver and CSI-assisted AF relay over that for t ¼ j + (i 2 1)n3 , we have
Nakagami-m fading. In this Letter, we present a simple approach to
obtain the closed-form expression of the lower bound for OP. gℓt = |hℓij |2 , (ℓt ) = bℓi Vℓt ,
g m(ℓt ) = mℓij (7)
Moreover, the asymptotic approximation for OP showing the diversity
and coding gains is provided. Our closed-form expression is shown to
Then, we can rewrite gℓ as: gℓ  SNt=1
ℓ
gℓt the probability density func-
agree very well with Monte-Carlo simulations and the approximate
tion (PDF) of which, by using the method of partial fractions and apply-
OP tightly converge to exact results in the high SNR regime.
ing the inverse Laplace transform of the moment generating function,
can be expressed as
System and channel model: Let us provide a general overview of dual-
(m
(ℓt ) −k)
hop MIMO AF cooperative wireless systems utilising OSTBC consist-  
Nℓ m(ℓt ) J
ℓt
ing of an n1-antenna source (S), an n3-antenna relay (R), and an n2- pg ℓ ( g ) = gk−1 exp(−lℓt g) (8)
t=1 k=1 (k − 1)!
antenna destination (D). The communication between S and D occurs
in two hops. In the first hop, S transmits an n1 × K OSTBC matrix to
where lℓt = m(ℓt ) /
g(ℓt ) and expansion coefficients Jℓt are computed as
R, where K defines the block length of an OSTBC. Then, R amplifies
its received signal and forwards it to D in the second hop. Herein, let Nℓ m(ℓj )
us define G as the amplifying gain of R. Suppose that the instantaneous (m −k) j=1 d m(ℓt )−k
lℓj
Jℓt (ℓt ) =
CSI of the first-hop transmission is perfectly available at the relay and R (m(ℓt ) − k)! dsm(ℓt ) −k
consumes the same amount of power as S, we can approximate the gain
 (9)

−m(ℓj ) 
Nℓ
G in the high SNR regime as G2  1/(Sni=1 1
|Snj=1
3
h1ij |2 ) [3], where h1ij × (s + lℓt ) 
represents the channel gain between the ith antenna of S and the jth j=1,j=t 
s=−lℓt
antenna of R with i ¼ 1, 2, . . ., n1 and j ¼ 1, 2, . . ., n3. Therefore, the
instantaneous SNR at the destination, gD , is given by [3]:
Integrating (8) yields the following expression for the cumulative
   distribution function (CDF) of gℓ
n1 n3 n2 n3
i=1 | j=1 h1ij | i=1 | j=1 h2ij |
2 2
g 
gD =   n2 n3  (1) Nℓ 
 mℓt
(m −k) −k G(k, lℓt gi )
n1 R c n1
| n3 h1 |2 | h2 |2 F gℓ (g ) = Jℓt (ℓt ) lℓt 1− (10)
i=1 j=1 ij i=1 j=1 ij
t=1 k=1 G(k)

where h2ij stands for the channel coefficient between the jth antenna of R
and the ith antenna of D, g  is the average SNR, and Rc is a constant
specifying the code rate of OSTBC. Further, we assume that hℓij ,
where ℓ [ {1, 2}, is subject to i.n.i.d. Nakagami-m fading with the
average fading power Vℓij and the fading severity parameter mℓij
assumed to be an integer.
As can be observed from (1), to analyse the performance of the system
under consideration, the statistics of the square of the envelope of multi-
variate sums need to be obtained (see the terms |Snj=1 3
h1ij |2 and
|Snj=1
3
h2ij |2 . Hence, we need a more mathematically compact expression
than the one given in (1). To facilitate the OP analysis, we rewrite (1) in a
where G (n, x) is the incomplete gamma function [5, equation 8.350.2].
Outage probability analysis: To obtain the end-to-end OP, we derive
the CDF FX (x) of X = (g1 g2 /g1 + g2 ) as follows.
1 It is straightforward
to see that FX (x) ¼ Fg2 (x) + I where I = x Pr(g1 ≤ (xg2 /g2 − x))
pg2 (g2 )d g2 . Then,
1 performing the change of variable z ¼ g2 2 x for I
results in I = 0 Fg1 (x + (x2 /z))pg2 (x + z)dz. To compute further
the integral I, we first expand the incomplete gamma function of
Fg1 ( y + (y2/z)) given in (10) into a finite sum [5, equation
8.352.2] and then apply the binomial theorem. After some algebraic
manipulations, which are omitted here for brevity and using

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 19th August 2010 Vol. 46 No. 17

[5, equation 3.471.9], we obtain 100
analysis (closed-form)
analysis (approximation)
  N m(1 ) 10–1
N2 m
 (2t )
(m −k) G(k, l2ℓ g) 1 t simulation
FX (x) = J2t (2t ) 1− + 10–2
t=1 k=1 G(k) t=1 k=1

outage probability
(m −v) 10–3
(m −k) N2 m
(2u ) J
2u
(2u )
(l2u )v
× J1t (1t )
u=1 v=1 G(v) 10–4

gth = 10 dB

v−1 (v − 1)! (11) 10–5
× (l2u )−j−1 lv−j−1 exp(−l2u g)
j=0 (v − 1 − j)!
10–6

  (w−i+1)/2 example 1
 (l
k−1
1t )
i v+i−1
l1t v+i−1 10–7
− × 2
i=0 i! w=0 w l 2u example 2
10–8
  5 10 15 20 25 30
× g exp[−(l1t + l2u )g]kw−i+1 2 l1t l2u g
v+i
SNR, dB

Fig. 1 Outage probability for MIMO AF relay systems with OSTBC over
where kn (.) is the nth-order modified Bessel function of the second i.n.i.d. Nakagami-m fading
kind. The OP, Pout, can be immediately obtained from (11) since
Pout ¼ FX ( gth/j ), where gth is a given threshold. Conclusion: This Letter analyses the performance of OSTBC trans-
We next derive the asymptotically approximate OP by using the first mission in MIMO AF relay networks deploying multiple antennas in
nonzero coefficient of the McLaurin expansion of FX (x) [2]. The tight every node. In particular, we derived a closed-form tight lower bound
approximation of OP, of which the derivation is neglected here owing expression for OP over i.n.i.d. Nakagami-m fading channels. In suffi-
to space limitation, is given by ciently high SNR, the asymptotic OP revealing the diversity and
coding gains is presented. It has been shown that analytical results are
m(n1 Rc gth )@+1 −@−1 in good agreement with Monte-Carlo simulations.
Pout  (
g) (12)
@+1
# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2010
where @ = min(SNt=1 1
m , SN2 m(2t ) ) − 1 and m is obtained as 2 June 2010
N1 (1t ) t=1 2 doi: 10.1049/el.2010.1503
follows: 1. m = t=1 l1t if SNt=1 1
m(1t ) , SNt=12
m(2t ) , 2. m = Nt=1 l2t if
T.Q. Duong and H.-J. Zepernick (Blekinge Institute of Technology,
SNt=1
2
m(2t ) , SNt=1
1
m(1t ) , and 3. m = Nt=1 1
l1t + Nt=1 2
l2t if SNt=1
1
m(1t ) =
SNt=1
2
m(2t ) . As illustrated in (12), we can obtain the diversity and Sweden)
coding gains for MIMO AF relay systems with OSTBC transmission E-mail: dqt@bth.se
in i.n.i.d. Nakagami-m fading channels. For example, the diversity G.C. Alexandropoulos (University of Patras and National Centre for
gain is min(Sni=1 1
Snj=1
3
m1ij , Sni=1
2
Snj=1
3
m2ij ). It is interesting to note that Scientific Research ‘Demokritos’, Patras 25604, Greece)
for the case of Rayleigh fading channels, i.e. m1ij = m2ij = 1, the achiev-
T.A. Tsiftsis (Technological Educational Institute of Lamia, Athens
able diversity gain is of n3 × min(n1 , n2). Moreover, for the case of a
12210, Greece)
single antenna relay, i.e. n3 ¼ 1, the diversity order becomes min(n1 ,
n2) which exactly agrees with [2].
References
1 Lee, I.-H., and Kim, D.: ‘End-to-end BER analysis for dual-hop OSTBC
Numerical results: Numerical results are provided for the case where all transmissions over Rayleigh fading channels’, IEEE Trans. Commun.,
terminals are equipped with two antennas, i.e. n1 ¼ n2 ¼ n3 ¼ 2, in two 2008, 56, (3), pp. 347– 351
examples with different fading severity parameters given as: Example 1: 2 Duong, T.Q., Zepernick, H.-J., Tsiftsis, T.A., and Bao, V.N.Q.:
{m1ij }2i,j=1 = {m2ij }2i,j=1 = {1, 2, 1, 2} and Example 2: {m1ij }2i,j=1 = ‘Amplify-and-forward MIMO relaying with OSTBC over Nakagami-m
{m2ij }2i,j=1 = {1, 2, 3, 4}. The average channel powers for all links are fading channels’. Proc. IEEE Int. Communication Conf., (ICC), Cape
chosen as Vℓ2j = Vℓ1j exp(20.5) with Vℓ1j = 0.5 for j ¼ 1 and Town, South Africa, May 2010
2. Fig. 1 shows the OP of MIMO AF relay systems with OSTBC trans- 3 Lee, I.-H., and Kim, D.: ‘Coverage extension and power allocation in
dual-hop space-time transmission with multiple antennas in each node’,
mission for gth ¼ 10 dB against average SNR. The ‘analysis (closed- IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., 2007, 56, (6), pp. 3524–3532
form)’ and ‘analysis (approximation)’ curves are obtained from (11) 4 Chen, Q., and Fan, P.: ‘Performance analysis of hybrid ARQ with code
and (12), respectively. As can be observed from this Figure, our analyt- combining over interleaved fading channel’, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol.,
ical results for the closed-form lower bound match very well with simu- 2005, 54, (3), pp. 1207–1214
lations curves. In addition, asymptotic curves tightly converge to those 5 Gradshteyn, I.S., and Ryzhik, I.M.: ‘Table of integrals, series, and
of simulations and closed-form expressions. products’ (Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2000, 6th edn.)

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 19th August 2010 Vol. 46 No. 17

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