The performance comparison of differential detection and coherent detection with imperfect channel estimation in cooperative communication

In this paper, the performance comparison of differential detection and coherent detection with imperfect channel estimation in AF cooperative communication is examined. We consider the real environment with channel estimation error, and utilize the average bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the two detection schemes to derive the BERs' crossover point between channel estimation error and signal- noise-ratio (SNR), which is important for choosing which detection scheme between differential and coherent can have the system performance better. Simulation results show the significance of analytic results.