Outage performance of orthogonal space–time block code transmission in opportunistic decode‐and‐forward cooperative networks

Outage performance is analyzed for opportunistic decode‐and‐forward cooperative networks employing orthogonal space–time block codes. The closed‐form expressions of diversity order and the end‐to‐end outage probability at high signal‐to‐noise ratio regime are derived for arbitrary relay number (K) and antenna configuration (N antennas at the source and each relay, N_D antennas at the destination) under independent but not necessarily identical Rayleigh fading channels. The analysis is carried out in terms of the availability of the direct link between the source and the destination. It is demonstrated that the diversity order is min{N, N_D} ⋅ KN if the direct link is blocked, and if the direct link is available, the diversity order becomes min{N, N_D} ⋅ KN + NN_D. Simulation and numerical results verify the analysis well. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.