On the error probability of binary and M-ary signals in Nakagami-m fading channels

In this letter, we present new closed-form formulas for the exact average symbol-error rate (SER) of binary and M-ary signals over Nakagami-m fading channels with arbitrary fading index m. Using the well-known moment generating function-based analysis approach, we express the average SER in terms of the higher transcendental functions such as the Gauss hypergeometric function, Appell hypergeometric function, or Lauricella function. The results are generally applicable to arbitrary real-valued m. Furthermore, with the aid of reduction formulas of hypergeometric functions, we show previously published results for Rayleigh fading (m = 1) as special cases of our expressions.