A simple amplify-and-forward opportunistic relaying based on outdated channel state information

Opportunistic relay selection (ORS) is a promising approach for cooperative communications owing to its low complexity by activating only the best relay. However, in mobile scenarios, the channel state information (CSI) estimated in relay selection may be different from the actual CSI employed in data transmission due to relatively fast varying channels, i.e., CSI is outdated, which may lead to incorrect relay selection, and hence system performance deteriorates. To address the problem, this paper designs a relay selection strategy with instaneous and statistical CSIs in amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative networks whose instantaneous CSIs of two hops employed in relay selection are both outdated. Based on high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis, we propose a distinctive relay selection strategy which can be described as selecting the relay with the asymptotic optimum average symbol error probability (SEP) and outage probability at high SNR. The corresponding asymptotic outage probability and SEP performance analysis are also provided. Finally, simulation results not only validate our theoretical analysis, but also show that in asymmetrical outdated CSI scenarios, the proposed strategy achieves better performance than existing relay selection strategies at medium and high SNR values.