Efficient Symbol Error Rate Analysis of Cooperative Non-regenerative Relay Systems over Generalized Fading Channels

In this article, we develop a unified approach to the asymptotic performance analysis of symbol error rates for two-hop cooperative non-regenerative multi-relay networks over a myriad of stochastic channel models. Our proposed moment generating function (MGF) based analytical framework is also sufficiently general to encapsulate all types of coherent, differentially-coherent and non-coherent digital modulation schemes. In addition to simplifying the computation complexity of average symbol error rate (ASER) for cooperative amplify-and-forward (CAF) diversity systems treated in the literature, we also provide an accurate approximation for the desired ASER in a number of fading environments that heretofore had resisted a simple solution. The accuracy of our approximations has been validated with the closed-form formulas that are available for specific fading environments (e.g., Rayleigh and Nakagami-m channels) and via computer (Monte Carlo) simulations. Our analytical approach may also be extended to other types of cooperative strategies and multi-hop networks, although it is beyond the scope of this article.