Performance Analysis of Dual-Hop Relaying Communications Over Generalized Gamma Fading Channels

In this paper, we present closed form expressions for tight lower bounds of the performance of dual-hop non- regenerative relaying over independent non-identical generalized gamma fading channels. The generalized gamma distribution is very versatile and accurately approximates many of the commonly used channel models for multi-path, shadow, and composite fading. Since it is hard to find a closed form expression for the probability density function (PDF) of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the generalized gamma distribution, we use an approximate value instead. Novel closed form expressions for the PDF, outage probability and the moments of the approximate value of the SNR at the destination are derived. Also, the average SNR and amount of fading are determined. Moreover, closed form expressions (in terms of the tabulated Meijer's G-function) are found for the average symbol error probability (for several modulations schemes) as well as the Shannon capacity. It should be noted that the Meijer's G-function is widely available in many scientific software packages, such as MATHEMATICAreg and MAPLEreg. Finally, simulations results are also shown to verify the analytical results.