Outage Analysis for Coherent Decode-Forward Relaying Over Rayleigh Fading Channels

We analyze the outage performance of coherent partial decode-forward (pDF) relaying over Rayleigh fading channels in both half- and full-duplex transmissions. In coherent DF relaying, the relay either partially or fully decodes the source message, then coherently forwards the decoded message with the source to the destination. This coherent transmission creates a beamforming gain from the source and relay to the destination which improves the transmission rate. We analyze the impact of this beamforming gain on the outage performance, considering outage events at both the relay and the destination. We derive analytical expressions for the overall outage probability, assuming full CSI at receivers and only limited CSI at transmitters. We further show that at high SNR, coherent pDF relaying converges to full DF relaying and achieves the full diversity order of 2. These analyses provide a fundamental understanding of the reliability of coherent pDF relaying and form the basis for analyzing performance in larger network settings. Numerical results show that partial decoding at the relay outperforms full decoding for low SNR and high target rates in the half-duplex mode. Comparison with existing results further shows that source-relay coherent transmission and joint decoding at the destination both improve the outage performance.