Analysis of the pairwise error probability of non-interleaved codes on the Rayleigh-fading channel

Presents a derivation of a maximum likelihood (ML) decoder for codewords transmitted over a non-interleaved Rayleigh flat fading channel, followed by an exact expression for the pairwise error event probability of such a decoder. The authors also derive an exact expression for the pairwise event probability in the case of very slow fading-i.e. the fading experienced by all the symbols of the codeword is highly correlated. Finally the authors show that the interleaving depth required to optimise code performance for a particular minimum fading bandwidth coincides with the first zero of the fading channel´s autocorrelation function