Performance of relay‐based decode‐and‐forward cooperative diversity systems over Rayleigh fading channels with non‐identical interferers

Incremental relaying was initially presented so as to adjust for the shortages or limitations related to the usual cooperative methods, specifically, the fixed relaying methods in which the relay node assists the source node in transmitting the signals belonging to the destination independent of the channel status. Matter of fact, the adaptive relaying methods related to the cooperative diversity networks have attracted current researchers’ attention as of being capable of offering an efficient way in assigning the channel expedients when required. In this study, a two‐hop decode‐and‐forward incremental relaying over Rayleigh fading channels is assessed taking into account the existence of multiple non‐identical interferers close to the destination. Interestingly, investigating the non‐identical interferers case instead of identical ones, like what are published in the literature, is extremely challenging as it refers to a more generalised case. Interestingly, the performance of the system is degraded due to co‐channel interference. To this end, tight closed‐form expressions of the bit error rate and outage probability are ultimately obtained. Analytical and simulation results are introduced to consolidate the assumptions considered.