Novel ML estimation of m parameter of the noisy Nakagami-m channel

The Nakagami-m distributions is very useful for modeling radio links and characterizing the envelop distribution over different fading channels due to multipath fading in wireless communications. Robust and accurate estimation of m is very useful and necessary in many applications. The problem of estimating parameter m of Nakagami-m distribution in noisy environment is considered in this paper. Unlike most previous proposed estimators derived in noiseless or high-SNR (signal to noise ratio) channel, the novel estimator proposed in this paper estimates the parameter m in noisy environment by using correction factor. The performance of the novel estimator is compared with that of the reported estimators. It is showed that the new estimator performs better than the existing estimators, especially in the low-SNR channel. The simulation results confirm our analysis.