Decode-and-Forward Relaying Systems with N^thBest-Relay Selection over Rayleigh Fading Channels

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate performances of dual-hop decode-and-forward relaying systems with the $N^{th}$ best-relay selection scheme. In some schemes, such as scheduling or load balancing schemes, the best relay is unavailable and hence the system must resort the second best, third best, or generally the $N^{th}$ best relay. We derive the expressions of the outage probability and symbol error rate (SER) for this scenario over Rayleigh fading channels. Monte-Carlo simulations are presented to verify the analytical results.