Outage probability of multiple relay networks over κ-μ shadowed fading

Abstract

In this paper, we study the outage probability of an opportunistic multiple relay communication system over κ-μ shadowed fading channels for both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying protocols. We first provide an exact analysis of the impact of κ-μ shadowed fading on the outage probability of the system. To simplify the obtained analytical expression of the outage probability, we further approximate the κ-μ, shadowed fading channel by a Nakagami-m fading model. In order to illustrate the suitability of the approximation, numerical results are provided revealing that the exact outage probability using κ-μ, shadowed fading and the results obtained by approximating the fading by the Nakagami-m fading model match well as long as the parameters of the shadowed fading translate to integer values of the fading severity parameter m. Further, Monte-Carlo simulations have been conducted to validate the derived analytical expressions of the outage probability. Finally, the effect of network parameters such as the average transmit power at the source and the relay, the impact of the number of relays, the influence of the transmission distances and the fading parameters on the outage probability of the considered system is also illustrated through numerical examples.