In this letter, we present the impact of carrier frequency offset (CFO) in dual-hop orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with a fixed relay for frequency-selective fading channels. Approximate expressions of the average signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for both downlink and uplink are obtained and validated by simulations. It is shown that dual-hop systems have slightly worse average SNR degradation than single-hop systems. We also show that the average SNR degradation due to the CFO varies according to the gap between average received SNRs for the first and the second hop.

Optimum antenna sub-set selection in MIMO systems is an attractive cost reducing technique. In this paper we develop an optimal antenna sub-set selection technique to be used in conjunction with space-time block codes over a MIMO link to optimize link error performance over a fading channel. We study the case when antenna sub-set selection is applied either at the transmitter or the receiver. We provide analytical results for substantial improvement in average SNR and outage capacity when antenna sub-set selection is used. Simulation results that verify our analytical prediction are also presented.