In this paper, we derive a moment generating function (MGF) for dual-hop (DH) amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks, in which all nodes have an arbitrary number of antennas, with orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) transmissions over Rayleigh fading channels. We present an exact error rate expression based on the derived MGF and another analytical approach to derive achievable performance bounds as closed-forms of symbol error rate, outage probability, and normalized channel capacity. Furthermore, we derive the asymptotic behavior of symbol error rate and outage probability. From this asymptotic behavior, it is shown that the diversity order and its dependence on antenna configurations can be explicitly determined. Simulation results are also presented to verify their accuracy by comparing with numerical results and to provide an insight to the relationship between relaying networks' antenna configuration and diversity order. It is confirmed that the transmit antenna gain of the source node and the receive antenna gain of the relay node can be obtained only when the relay is close to the destination, and then, the transmit antenna gain of the relay node and the receive antenna gain of the destination node can be obtained only when the relay is close to the source. KEYWORDS amplify-and-forward, dual-hop networks, MIMO, OSTBC, Rayleigh fading channels Int J Commun Syst. 2019;32:e3943.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/dac
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