Performance analysis of serial cooperative communications with decode-and-forward relaying and blind-EGC reception under nakagami fading channels

We analyze a serial cooperative transmission system with DF relaying over Nakagami fading channels. We consider a system in which the simple receivers will not estimate the amplitude of the received signals. Hence, signals are combined with equal gain before decoding. Moreover, the relays use a simple protocol when relaying the messages ? they re-transmit the message if they can decode the received message correctly; otherwise, they do not transmit anything and remain idle. We will derive an exact expression for the asymptotic symbol error rate of the system and evaluate the diversity properties.