IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 58, NO.

3, MARCH 2010 729

Performance of Dual-Hop Amplify-and-Forward Beamforming and its

Equivalent Systems in Rayleigh Fading Channels
Jung-Bin Kim, Student Member, IEEE, and Dongwoo Kim, Member, IEEE

Abstract—Combining a dual-hop relaying with multi-input available at the transmitter and the receiver, respectively. Thus
multi-output (MIMO) transmission is a natural extension to over- using either TBF or MRC in series or alternately at each hop
come the channel impairments. Transmit beamforming (TBF) in dual-hop systems is a reasonable configuration. In this case,
and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are widely accepted ones,
which maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver there are four possible combinations in constructing dual-hop
when channel state information is available. With these meth- transmission: TBF-TBF, MRC-MRC, MRC-TBF, and TBF-
ods, there are four possible combinations in constructing dual- MRC. Since TBF and MRC are equivalent in a single hop
hop transmission: TBF-TBF, MRC-MRC, MRC-TBF, and TBF- system [9], where we refer both TBF and MRC as beamform-
MRC, respectively. We provide optimal amplify-and-forward (AF) ing (BF) for this reason, the four dual-hop transmissions are
weights at a relay, which maximize the end-to-end SNR for
the four systems, respectively, and show the equivalence of the obviously equivalent if DF relaying is employed. When an AF
four systems in terms of the SNR. Using relaxed AF weights relay is used, however, the equivalence is not trivial since an
from the optimal ones, we provide a probability density function eligible amplifying weight (or gain for each antenna, referred
(PDF) and a moment generating function (MGF) for the end- to as an AF weight in this letter) at the relay pertaining to the
to-end SNR per bit with an assumption of an equal number beamforming optimality should be assumed in advance.
of diversity branch for each hop, which is used to obtain the
BER performance for M-ary QAM and PSK constellations, This letter addresses performance of dual-hop BF with an
respectively. Numerical results show that the BERs with the AF relay and provides
relaxed AF weights provide tight lower bounds for those with ∙ optimal AF weights at the relay, which maximize the end-
optimal AF weights. We also compare the BER performance of
above AF relaying with that of dual-hop decode-and-forward to-end SNR of the four dual-hop systems, respectively,
(DF) relaying.. ∙ the equivalence of the four systems in terms of received
SNR with the derived weights, and
Index Terms—Dual-hop relaying, multi-input multi-output
(MIMO), amplify-and-forward (AF), transmit beamforming ∙ a PDF and a MGF for the SNR per bit with an assumption
(TBF), maximal ratio combining (MRC), bit error rate (BER). of an equal number of diversity branches for each hop and
slightly relaxing the power constraint at the relay, which
will be used in this letter to obtain BER performance for
I. I NTRODUCTION
� -ary QAM and PSK constellations, respectively.
UAL-HOP relaying recently has attracted attention as
D one of the candidates to overcome the channel impair-
ments like fading, shadowing and path loss [1]-[2]. When the
In addition, the BER performance of dual-hop AF BF is
compared with that of dual-hop DF BF. For dual-hop DF
BF, by using a cascade decoding idea in [10], an exact
direct link between the source and the destination node is BER expression can be obtained if the PDF and the MGF
in a deep fade or heavy shadowing, a nearby mobile node given in this letter are used. But we do not include the full
or a fixed repeater relay the signals from the source to the expressions in this letter due to the space limit. It is clear that
destination. By the relaying, the channel from the source to the four systems mentioned above are equivalent also for the
the destination is split into two, possibly shorter, links and as DF relaying.
a result the signals propagate through improved links in series.
Recently, the benefit of various types of multiple-antenna
deployment in dual-hop relaying has been demonstrated based II. S YSTEM M ODEL
on orthogonal space-time block codes [3]-[4], zero-forcing
We consider four systems of the dual-hop BF relaying:
dirty paper coding [5], spatial multiplexing techniques [6],
TBF-TBF, MRC-MRC, MRC-TBF, and TBF-MRC, two of
joint multiuser and eigen-mode beamforming [7], and Grass-
which are illustrated in Fig. 1. In Fig. 1(a) TBF-TBF, the
mannian beamforming [8]. Among a variety of multiple-
source using TBF is communicating with the destination
antenna techniques, transmit beamforming (TBF) and maximal
through an intermediate relay that also uses TBF. Thus, TBF is
ratio combining (MRC) are widely accepted ones, which maxi-
used in a series. In Fig. 1(b) TBF-MRC, the second hop adopts
mize the SNR at the receiver when channel state information is
MRC instead of TBF, where the relay has just one Rx and
Paper approved by M.-S. Alouini, the Editor for Modulation and Diversity one Tx antenna. In the MRC-TBF case, the relay is equipped
Systems of the IEEE Communications Society. Manuscript received August with multiple antennas while the source and destination each
24, 2007; revised June 12, 2008, December 31, 2008, and April 9, 2009.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and have a single antenna. We primarily investigate AF relaying
Computer Science, Hanyang University, Ansan, 425-791 Korea (e-mail: schemes, but BER for the corresponding DF relaying is also
dkim@hanyang.ac.kr). numerically compared in section V. It is assumed that each
This work was supported by the Second-Phase Brain Korea 21 Project in
2009. node has adequate channel information to use either TBF
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TCOMM.2010.03.070115 or MRC, where a certain level of feedback is sometimes
c 2010 IEEE
0090-6778/10$25.00 ⃝

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730 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 58, NO. 3, MARCH 2010

TABLE I
N OTATIONS OF AF W EIGHTS AND R ECEIVED S IGNALS

AF Weights and Received Signals

Type (a) AF weight and its dimension (b) Signal received at the relay (c) Signal received at the destination
TBF-TBF w1 ∈ � �� ×1 �� = h� g�√ + �� �� = h� w1 (h� g�
√ + �� ) + ��
MRC-MRC w2 ∈ � 1×�� y� = h� √�� � + n� y� = h� w2 (h� √�� � + n� ) + n�
MRC-TBF W3 ∈ � �� ×�� y� = h� �� � + n� �� = h� W3 (h� �� � + n� ) + ��
TBF-MRC �4 ∈ � 1×1 �� = h� g� + �� y� = h� �4 (h� g� + �� ) + n�
Optimal and Relaxed AF Weights at a Relay
Type (d) Optimal (e) Optimal (f) Optimal AF weight (g) Relaxed AF weight
beamformer combiner
√
� h� h�
√ √
�� ��
TBF-TBF ĝ = ∥h� ∥� ⋅ ŵ1 = �� ∥h� ∥2 ∥h� ∥2 +∥h� ∥2 � 2
⋅ h�
� w̃1 = �
�� ∥h� ∥∥h� ∥
�
√ √ �
�� �� h�
MRC-MRC ⋅ û = h�
� ŵ2 = 4
�
2 2 ⋅ h� w̃2 = � 2
√�� ∥h� ∥ +∥h� ∥ � √ � ∥h� ∥� �
�� � � �� h� h�
MRC-TBF ⋅ ⋅ Ŵ3 = � ∥h ∥4 ∥h� ∥2 +∥h� ∥2 ∥h� ∥2 � 2
⋅ h� h� W̃3 = � ∥h ∥2 ∥h� ∥
√ √ � � √ � �
�� h�
� � �� �� 1
TBF-MRC ĝ = ∥h� ∥
û = h� ˆ4 =
� � ∥h ∥2 +� 2
˜4 =
� � ∥h ∥
� � � �

III. O PTIMAL AF W EIGHTS AND SNR E QUIVALENCE

Lemma 1: (Optimal AF weights and SNR equivalence ):
Suppose that �� and �� are power constraints at the source
and the relay, respectively. For the four BF relaying systems,
the respective end-to-end SNR received at the destination is
maximized by the optimal AF weight summarized in column
(f) of Table I with the beamformer or the MRC weight
(a) TBF-TBF specified in columns (d) and (e), respectively. Moreover, the
optimal end-to-end SNR for the four systems is equivalently
achieved by
�� 2 �� 2
ˆ �(h� , h� ) = �2 ∥h� ∥ ⋅ �2 ∣h� ∥
�� �� 2 � 2
, (1)
�2 ∥h� ∥ + �2 ∥h� ∥ + 1
�

where � 2 denotes the noise power at each receive antenna1 .

Proof : See Appendix. ■
(b) TBF-MRC If the noise at the relay is negligible, the optimal AF
weights can be reduced to the relaxed AF weights in col-
Fig. 1. System models
umn (g) of Table I, respectively. The relaxed AF weights
are mathematically more tractable and are assumed to ob-
tain PDF and MGF of end-to-end SNR in the follow-
necessary. Throughout this letter, the communication between ing, which will be numerically shown to provide a lower
the source and the destination is assumed not possible. bound for the BER achieved with the optimal weights.
Hereafter subscripts �, �, and � denote the source, relay, The lower bound becomes extremely tight when high-order
and destination, respectively, and subscripts � and � denote modulation is used. With the relaxed AF weights, the
four ˜ �(h� , h� ) =
��
the first and the second hop, respectively. Let �(⋅) and �(⋅) ( �� systems
2 ��
also have
2
) the
( �� same 2SNR:
��
/ �2 ∥h� ∥ + �2 ∥h� ∥2 . Without
)
denote the number of Rx and Tx antennas, respectively. �2 ∥h� ∥ ⋅ �2 ∥h� ∥
def
Channel vectors are denoted by h� , either h� ∈ � �� ×1 or loss of generality, we assume that �� = �� = �
h� ∈ � 1×�� for the first hop, and h� , either h� ∈ � 1×�� and let the overall SNR per bit be defined by �˜(�) =
or h� ∈ � �� ×1 for the second hop. Without confusing, h(⋅) �� ˜ �(h� , h� )/ log2 � where � = �/� 2 and � is a mod-
is used as either a column vector that represents the channel at ulation order used in dual-hop transmission. For all the four
the hop using TBF or a row channel vector considered at the systems the SNR per bit is then equivalently given by
hop using MRC. We assume that each element of h� and h�
is an i.i.d complex Gaussian random variable (RV) with mean � ∥h� ∥2 ∥h� ∥2
�˜ (�) = ⋅
zero and variance �/2 per dimension. The power constraint log2 � ∥h� ∥2 + ∥h� ∥2
is assumed �� at the source and �� at the relay, respectively. [ ]−1
� 1 1
In Table I, columns (a)-(c) summarize the notations for AF = + , (2)
log2 � ∥h� ∥2 ∥h� ∥2
weight vectors and signals received at the relay as well as the
destination for the four systems, respectively, where � and g when using the relaxed AF weights.
denote the transmit signal and a beamforming vector at the
source, respectively. 1A similar result can be found in [8]

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KIM and KIM: PERFORMANCE OF DUAL-HOP AMPLIFY-AND-FORWARD BEAMFORMING AND ITS EQUIVALENT SYSTEMS . . . 731

IV. PDF AND MGF D ERIVATION

In this section, we will derive PDF and MGF of the end-to-
end SNR per bit defined in (2). Using the PDF and MGF, we
then can analytically obtain BER of � -ary QAM and � -ary
PSK with the methods analogous to Section III.A and Section
III.B in [11], respectively, but omit the details due to the space
limit. We also limit our derivation for the case that the number
of diversity branches in each hop is the same, namely �.
Lemma 2: (PDF and MGF of � = 1/∥h∥2): Let h be � ×
1 or 1 × � vector whose elements are i.i.d. complex Gaussian
RVs with mean zero and variance �/2 per dimension, i.e.,
ℎ� ∼ �� (0, �) (� = 1, ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ , �), then the PDF and the MGF
of � = 1/∥h∥2 are given by
( )(�+1)
1 1
�� (�) = ( )� �−1/�� , (3)
�
2 Γ(�) �
�
2

and
2��/2
( √ )
� Fig. 2. BER comparisons between analytic and simulated results as well as
−�� �/2
ℳ� (�) = �� [� ] = ( )� � �� 2 , between the relaying weight ŵ1 and w̃1 for AF BF relaying: � = 2, 4 and
�
2� Γ(�) � � = 1.
2
(4)
respectively, where �� (⋅) denotes the modified Bessel func-
tion [12] and �� [⋅] represents the expectation operation with V. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
respect to �. In Fig. 2, we verify our analytical BER results by comparing
Proof : Since ∥h∥2 is a chi-squared distributed RV with 2� with simulated results for AF BF relaying when � = 2, 4. Re-
degrees of freedom, the PDF and the MGF of � = 1/∥h∥2 sults are compared for QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-QAM and 32-QAM,
are readily obtained with the help of [12, eq. (3.471.9)]. ■ respectively. Two sorts of simulation are also performed: one
We assume that �� = 1/∥h� ∥2 and �� = 1/∥h� ∥2 are assumes an optimal AF weight and the other does relaxed one
independent. Then using the result of Lemma 2, the MGF of for which an analytic BER performance provided in this letter.
� = �� + �� is obtained by ℳ� (�) = ℳ�� (�)ℳ�� (�), In the simulation, � = 1 is assumed. It is clear that the BER
and with the assistance of [13, eq. (13.2.17)], we can get derived in this letter makes an excellent agreement with the
the PDF of � and � = 1/� , respectively. By using a simulation results for all the cases tested. The analytic BER
transformation of variables, the PDF of �˜(�) is obtained by with the relaxed weight constructs a very tight lower bound
( )2 √ ( for the simulated BER with the optimal weight. Moreover,
)�−1
2��/2 � 2 the gap between the BERs becomes negligible when SNR is
��˜(�) (�) = ( )� √
�
2� Γ(�) 2 � high or high-order modulation is used. Therefore, the BER
2 performance provided in the letter is sufficiently exact.
( )(3�−1)/2
log2 � 2 log2 �
In Fig. 3, we compare the BER performances of the AF
× � (3�−3)/2 �− ��
� and the DF systems when 4-ary QAM and 16-ary QAM are
used, respectively. The BER curves for the DF system in the
( )
4 log2 �
� � , � � , (5) figures are obtained by [10, eq. (11.4.12)], [14] ��� (�) =
2 2 ��
�� (�) + �� (�) − 2�� (�)�� (�), where �� (�) and �� (�) are
where � � , � (⋅) denotes the Whittaker function [12]. With a the single-hop BERs for the first hop and for the second hop,
2 2
help of [12, eq. (7.621.3)], the MGF of �˜ (�) is then given by respectively. SISO relaying is also included in the figures as a
( )2 √ ( )�−1 reference, where the nodes have only one Tx/Rx antenna. To
2��/2 � 2 get the BER equation for SISO systems, we use MGF and PDF
ℳ�˜(�) (�) = ( )� √
�
2� Γ(�) 2 � functions of the received SNR in [14] and follow the same
2
( )(�+1)/2 approach in our work. From the figures it is clear that: the
)(3�−1)/2 Γ(2�)Γ(�) 4 log2 �
AF systems have better BER performance at very low SNR,
(
log2 � ��
× the DF systems perform better from a middle SNR region,
� Γ(� + 12 )
( )−2� those two curves become closer when SNR goes higher, and
4 log2 � finally as the number of antennas of each hop increasing, the
× +�
�� DF systems offer the better performance.
( )
1 1 2�
� 2�, ; � + ; 8 log � , (6) VI. C ONCLUSIONS
2 2 2
+ 2� ��
We have derived optimal AF weights that maximize the
where � (⋅, ⋅; ⋅; ⋅) means the Gauss’ hypergeometric function end-to-end SNR under a relaying power constraint for TBF-
[12]. TBF, MRC-MRC, TBF-MRC, and MRC-TBF, respectively.

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732 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 58, NO. 3, MARCH 2010

∥h� ∥2 �� (�′ ) ∥h� ∥2 ��

= ∥h� ∥2 �� �2 +�4
≤ ∥h� ∥2 �� �2 +�4
∣h� g∣2 + �2 ∥h� ∥2 ∥g∥2 + �2
(�′ ) �� 2 �� 2
�2 ∥h� ∥ ⋅ �2 ∣h� ∥
≤ �� 2 �� 2
. (7)
�2 ∥h� ∥ + �2 ∥h� ∥ + 1
The above inequality (�′ ) holds by Cauchy-Schwarz inequality
∣h� g∣2
applied on the denominator. Since �2 +�2 /∥h 2
� ∥ ∥w1 ∥
2 is mono-

tonically increasing with respect to ∥w1 ∥2 , it is maximized by

letting ∥w1 �� ∥2 = ∣�� ∣2 ∥w1 ∥2 = (∣h� g∣2 + � 2 )∥w1 ∥2 =
�� under the relaying power constraint, which leads to
inequality (�′ ). The inequality (�′ ) also holds by Cauchy-
2
Schwarz inequality. ∥h� ∥∥h � ∥ ��
2 � �2 +�4
� 2
is monotonically in-
∥h� ∥2 ∥g∥2
+�
2
creasing with respect to ∥g∥ and hence maximized when
taking ∥g∥2 = �� , which leads to inequality (�′ ). It is
obvious that the resulting maximum SNR in (7) is equal to
Fig. 3. BER comparison between AF and DF relaying systems for 4-ary �� �(h� , h� , g, w1 ) attained by letting w1 = ŵ1 and g = ĝ
QAM and 16-ary QAM: � = 1. in Table I, respectively.

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