DF-MISO Relay Assisted RF/FSO Network with Non-Identical Nakagami-$m$ Variates

In this paper, a decode-and-forward (DF) based multiple-input-single-output (MISO) relay assisted dual-hop mixed radio frequency/free space optical (RF/FSO) communication network is considered. Each branch in RF link is assumed to experience independent and non-identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) Nakagami- m fading, whereas the irradiance of FSO link is subjected to a Gamma-Gamma distribution with misalignment error (ME). In this work, maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity scheme at the relay is investigated. The analytical expressions of the probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) are derived. Utilizing the derived channel statistics, we obtain the outage probability (OP) and average symbol error probability (SEP) expressions for the considered system.