In this paper, we propose an output threshold-based incremental multiple-relay combining scheme for cooperative amplify-and-forward relay networks with nonidentically distributed relay channels. Specifically, in order to achieve the required performance, we consider both conventional incremental relaying and multiple-relay selection where relays are adaptively selected based on a predetermined output threshold. Moreover, the adaptive modulation technique is adopted by our proposed scheme for satisfying both the spectral efficiency and the required error rate. For the proposed scheme, we first derive an upper bound of the output combined signal-to-noise ratio and then provide its statistics such as cumulative distribution function (CDF), probability density function (PDF), and moment generating function (MGF) over independent, nonidentically distributed Rayleigh fading channels. Additionally, we analyze the system performance in terms of average spectral efficiency, average bit error rate, outage probability, and system complexity. Finally, numerical examples show that our proposed scheme leads to a certain performance improvement in the cooperative networks.
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