An approximate analytical framework for performance analysis of equal gain combining technique over independent Nakagami, Rician and Weibull fading channels

In this paper, an approximate analytical method for performance analysis of equal gain combiner (EGC) receiver over independent Nakagami and Rician fading channels is presented. We use a convergent infinite series approach which makes it possible to describe the probability of error of EGC receiver in the form of an infinite series. In this paper, we develop a new approximation method for computation of the required coefficients in this series which lets us to derive simple analytical closed-fonn expressions with good accuracy compared with the exact results existing in the literatures. Our proposed approximation method only needs the mean and the variance of the fading envelope, which are known for various fading distributions, and hence, bypasses the required integration over the fading envelope distribution while computing the required coefficients. This feature lets us to extend our approximation method for performance analysis of EGC receiver over independent Weibull fading channels where the required integration has not any closed-form or tabulated solutions. To give an application of our developed method, we analyze the probability of error of an EGC receiver for binary, coherent PSK (CPSK) modulation over independent Nakagami, Rician and weibull fading channels and study the effect of the fading conditions on the system performance.