Temporal Correlation of Interference in Wireless Networks with Rayleigh Block Fading

The temporal correlation of interference is a key performance factor of several technologies and protocols for wireless communications. A comprehensive understanding of interference correlation is especially important in the design of diversity schemes, whose performance can severely degrade in case of highly correlated interference. Taking into account three sources of correlation-node locations, channel, and traffic-and using common modeling assumptions-random homogeneous node positions, Rayleigh block fading, and slotted ALOHA traffic-we derive closed-form expressions and calculation rules for the correlation coefficient of the overall interference power received at a certain point in space. Plots give an intuitive understanding as to how model parameters influence the interference correlation.