Performance of Relay Networks in Fading Environments with Dominant Specular Components

Radio propagation in dense and super dense wireless networks as well as indoor-to-outdoor picocell networks can have multiple line-of-sight or multiple specular components. The performance of a dual-hop decode-and-forward relaying system over multiple specular components fading channels(MSCC)with multiple Rayleigh distributed co-channel interferers in an interference-limited environment is investigated. The MSCC fading model is designed to allow direct and meaningful comparisons to be made between line-of-sight channels and non-line-of-sight channels, with exact parameter correspondences. Comparisons of outage and bit error performance between Nakagami-m/Rayleigh and MSCC/Rayleigh fading environments show that the MSCC model is needed to describe line-of-sight channels that cannot be accurately modeled by the Nakagami-m, or other fading models.