Performance Analysis of Optimal Beamforming in Fixed-Gain AF MIMO Relaying over Asymmetric Fading Channels

This paper analyzes the performance of an optimal single stream beamforming scheme for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay network with dual-hop fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying. The source-relay and relay-destination channels undergo Rayleigh and Rician fading respectively. Different Rician fading scenarios are considered for relay-destination channel, depending on the rank of the Rician channel matrix. The channel state information is only available at the destination, and the destination computes the optimal transmit and receive beamforming vectors to maximize the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The optimal transmit beamforming vector is sent back to the transmitter via a dedicated feedback link. We derive new analytical expressions for the cumulative distribution function, probability density function, and moments to statistically characterize the properties of the instantaneous SNR. These statistical properties are used to analyze the system performance in terms of the outage probability, average bit error rate, and the ergodic capacity. The performance analysis investigates the effects of the Rician factor, rank of the line-of-sight component, and number of antennas at the nodes on the system performance. The results reveal that the optimal single stream beamforming system provides better performance than an orthogonal space-time block coded based AF MIMO system.