Relay selection for decode-and-forward cooperative vehicular networks with virtual noise modelling

In this paper, error performance analysis of decode and forward (DF) based cooperative vehicular networks with relay selection is considered. All of the links in the system are modeled as cascaded Nakagami-m distributed random variables which provide a realistic description of an intervehicular channel. The performance of virtual noise (VN) based detection technique developed for mitigating error propagation in wireless relay systems employing DF protocol is investigated and it has been shown that VN technique provides significant performance improvement with respect to the classic MRC method in cooperative vehicular networks.