Error Probability of OSTB Codes and Capacity Analysis with Antenna Selection over Single-Antenna AF Relay Channels

Abstract—In this paper, the symbol error rate (SER) and the bit error rate (BER) of orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) and their achievable capacity over an amplify-andforward (AF) relay channel with multiple antennas at source and destination and single antenna at relay node are investigated. Considered are receive antenna selection, transmit antenna selection, and joint antenna selection at both the transmitter and the receiver. The exact SERs of OSTBCs for M-PSK and square M-QAM constellations are obtained using the moment generating functions (MGFs). Also, we analyze the achievable capacity over such channels assuming antenna selection is done at the source and relay nodes. We show that a small number of selected antennas can achieve the capacity of the system in which no channel state information (CSI) is available at the source and relay nodes.