Performance analysis of multiple-antenna cooperative networks under Weibull fading

In wireless communications, cooperative relaying is well-known to enhance the overall system performance, but implementation and cost constraints stand against its wide deployment. This paper investigates the performance of cooperative relays with and without multiple antennas under independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Weibull faded channels in a two-hop wireless network. We consider the Weibull fading channel model due to its flexibility in describing the radio propagation environment more than the classical Rayleigh model. Our study relies on applying selection combining (SC) along with threshold decode and forward (TDF) protocol at the cooperative relays as a good compromise between cost and performance. In addition, maximal ratio combining (MRC) is used at the destination. We derive analytical expressions for the end-to-end (E2E) error performance of the network under such scenario and provide simulation results to confirm the validity of the obtained analytical expressions.