Performance analysis of cooperative diversity networks with imperfect channel estimation over Rician fading channels

In this paper, we examine the effect of channel estimation error on the error and outage probabilities of a multi-relay system with amplify-and-forward relaying over frequency-flat Rician fading channel. We consider orthogonal relaying and study both conventional cooperative systems (i.e., all relays participate in the relaying phase) and opportunistic cooperative systems (i.e., only the best relay participates in the relaying phase). Based on the derivation of effective signal-to-ratio (SNR) at the receiver taking into account channel estimation error, we obtain closed-form expressions for error and outage probabilities in high SNR regime. Such closed form solutions are highly desirable because they allow for rapid and efficient evaluation of system performance. Computer simulations are used to validate our analytical results.