Performance Analysis of Differential Beamforming in Decentralized Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes and analyzes a novel differential distributed beamforming strategy for decentralized two-way relay networks. In our strategy, the phases of the received signals at all relays are synchronized without requiring channel feedback or training symbols. Bit error rate (BER) expressions of the proposed strategy are provided for coherent and differential M-PSK modulation. Upper bounds, lower bounds, and simple approximations of the BER are also derived. Based on the theoretical and simulated BER performance, the proposed strategy offers a high system performance and low decoding complexity and delay without requiring channel state information at any transmitting or receiving antenna. Furthermore, the simple approximation of the BER upper bound shows that the proposed strategy enjoys the full diversity gain which is equal to the number of transmitting antennas.