Asymptotic error rate analysis of H-S/EGC over arbitrarily correlated Rician channels

Abstract

We study asymptotic error rate performance of a multi-branch hybrid selection/equal-gain combining (H-S/EGC) diversity reception system over arbitrarily correlated Rician channels. Based on an integral representation of the joint probability density function of multivariate Rician random variables with arbitrary correlations, closed-form asymptotic error rate expression is derived for multi-branch H-S/EGC diversity reception. Numerical results indicate that this analytical solution can be used to estimate the error rate in large signal-to-noise ratio regimes accurately. The analytical results reveal some important insights into the performance characteristics of H-S/EGC diversity reception system operating over arbitrarily correlated Rician fading channels.