Performance analysis of beamforming in two-hop AF relay networks with antenna correlation and interference

This paper investigates the performance of a two-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network with antenna correlation and co-channel interference (CCI) over Rayleigh fading channels. In this network, the relay has multiple antennas while both the source and destination are equipped with a single antenna. By assuming that the statistical channel state information (SCSI) is available at the relay, the maximal output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is first obtained. Then, with the help of the specialized functions, the analytical expressions for the outage probability (OP), Ergodic capacity and average symbol error rates (ASERs) of the considered AF relay network are all derived. Moreover, the asymptotic analysis at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is also presented to reveal the diversity order and array gain of the relay system. Finally, computer simulations are given to confirm the validity of the theoretical analysis and indicate the effects of antenna correlation and interference on the system performance.