Performance analysis of wireless multihop diversity systems

We study the performance of multihop diversity systems with non-regenerative relays over independent and non-identical Rayleigh fading channels. The analysis is based on the evaluation of the instantaneous end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), depending on the type of the relay and the diversity scheme used. A closed-form expression is derived for the average end-to-end SNR, when fixed-gain relays and a maximal ratio combiner are used; also, an analytical expression formula for the average symbol-error rate (ASER) for the above case is presented. The results show that, as expected, multihop diversity systems outperform conventional telecommunication systems in terms of ASER when the same amount of energy is assumed to be consumed in both cases.