On the performance of distributed space-time block codes in cooperative relay networks

In this paper, space-time block codes (STBCs) are applied in a distributed fashion in a scenario with multiple cooperating relay stations (RSs) having multiple antennas. By applying the Chernoff bound to the theoretical bit error rate (BER) in Rayleigh fading channels, it turns out that the BER performance has a higher sensitivity to spatial correlation in Multiple Input Multiple Output channels than to different receive powers at the receiver from different cooperating RSs. If the number of overall available antennas exceeds the number of required antennas for the considered STBC, based on the theoretical analysis a criterion for the selection of the antennas which should cooperate in order to achieve the best BER performance is given.