Performance improvement of relay system in Rayleigh/rice fading using polarization diversity

Wireless relaying has been proved as an efficient transmission technique which improves wireless system reliability and durability, through increased network range, capacity and energy efficiency. However, performance of wireless relay systems is strongly influenced by the worst communication link between the transmitter and the receiver. In realistic communication scenario characterized with non-identical channels' parameters, it is necessary to consider some additional techniques to improve the characteristics of this bottleneck link, and performance of relay system as whole. In this paper we assume amplify-and-forward relay system with variable gain amplification, operating in mixed Rice/Rayleigh fading environment. In order to improve its performance we propose implementation of polarization diversity. We present mathematical model, based on derivation of two statistical functions describing total received SNR, probability density function and moment generating function, which enables analyses of error rate performance for the considered relay system. The obtained results show that implementation of polarization diversity leads towards significant performance enhancement, while being a cost and space effective solution.