Adaptive transmission in amplify-and-forward cooperative communications using orthogonal space–time block codes under spatially correlated antennas

This study analyses the impact of antenna correlation on orthogonal space-time block coding in amplify-and-forward cooperative relay networks in conjunction with different adaptive transmission techniques over Rayleigh fading channels. Closed-form expressions are derived for the cumulative distribution function, and probability distribution function of the total signal-to-noise ratio. For each considered adaptive transmission technique, the authors derive closed-form expressions for the average channel capacity, outage probability, average spectral efficiency and the average bit error rate of the system. Using numerical evaluations, the performances for different cases are compared in order to evaluate and quantify the effects of spatial correlation on the system performance.