The GTCF Method for Exact Analysis of Multihop AF Relaying Systems

A new transform method, the generalized transformed characteristic function (GTCF), gives an exact, integral solution for the probability density function of the end-to-end received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of multihop amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying systems. The results are precise for any number of hops and can accommodate any channel fading distribution. The theory provides the first exact theoretical solutions when the number of hops N >; 2. Both cases of identically and non-identically distributed links are investigated. The case of dissimilar links, in which the link fadings follow different distributions, is also studied. The effect of the number of hops, N, on the performance metrics is studied.