Performance Analysis of M-Ary PSK Modulation Schemes over Multiple Double Rayleigh Fading Channels with EGC in Cooperative Networks

This article studies the performance of M-ary phase shift keying (PSK) modulation schemes over mobile-to-mobile (M2M) fading channels with equal gain combining (EGC) in cooperative networks. The frequency-nonselective M2M fading channels are modeled assuming non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation conditions. Furthermore, a dual-hop amplify-and-forward relay type cooperative network is taken into consideration here. It is assumed that K diversity branches are present between the source mobile station and the destination mobile station via K mobile relays. The performance of M-ary PSK modulation schemes is analyzed by evaluating the average bit error probability (BEP). We have derived a simple analytical approximation for the average BEP of M-ary PSK modulation schemes over relay-based M2M fading channels with EGC. The validity and accuracy of the analytical approximation is confirmed by simulations. The presented results show that in a dual-hop relay system with EGC, there is a remarkable improvement in the diversity gain as the number of diversity branches K increases.