Performance analysis of QAM in amplify-and-forward cooperative communication networks over Rayleigh fading channels

Abstract Performance analysis of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes for cooperative amplify-and-forward (AF) dual-hop relaying system over independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channels are presented in this paper. Specifically, we derive closed-form lower-bound expressions of average symbol error rate (ASER) for general order rectangular QAM (RQAM) and cross QAM (XQAM) using well-known moment generating function (MGF) based approach with maximal ratio combining (MRC) scheme. Further, using best relay selection scheme (BRS), we also derive an ASER expression for XQAM. Numerical and simulated results are compared to validate the correctness of derived expressions. Furthermore, comparative analysis of RQAM and XQAM schemes is discussed which confirms that XQAM is better alternative over RQAM for transmission of odd number of bits per symbol for the considered system model. We also compare the ASER performance for MRC and BRS schemes in terms of SNR gain using different XQAM constellations. Moreover, the impact of system parameters on ASER is also highlighted.