Bit Error Rate Performance of Hybrid SEC/MRC Diversity Scheme over Correlated Channels

One of the most effective methods for improving the performance of wireless communications is diversity scheme. In variety diversity schemes, the hybrid selection-combining/maximal-ratio combining (SC/MRC) diversity scheme has received considerable attention owing to its ability to alleviate the detrimental effects of deep fading on wireless channels. However, the conventional hybrid SC/ MRC needs to monitor the signal quality of all the using diversity branches, therefore it is so complicated to apply to practical systems occasionally. In this paper, we propose a hybrid switched-examine-combining (SEC)/MRC diversity scheme in which connected branches are switched in order to determine whether a branch should be combined via MRC within a multi-branch. We first extract thresholds according to the transmit signal power for the criteria of switching diversity branches. And then we obtain the bit error rate (BER) performances with the proposed scheme over the multiple-branch. This scheme provides improved BER performance along the other available diversity branches without requiring additional signal power and acquires additional performance gain via adaptive switching thresholds.