Non-combining incremental relaying protocol for amplify-and-forward cooperative systems

In this study, a two-hop amplify-and-forward cooperative system is considered. By exploiting the limited feedback from the destination, this study has proposed a Non-combining Incremental Relaying (NCIR) protocol. The asymptotic behavior of the symbol error probability is analyzed and its spectral efficiency issue is addressed. The study also utilizes the relay selection technique to further improve the system performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional alternatives in terms of both error performance and bandwidth efficiency.