Performance of hybrid ARQ on dual-branch diversity receiver in Rayleigh fading channel

Error control techniques in wireless links such as Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) are still quite effective approaches in the improving system throughput in particular in time-varying channel environments. In this paper, a dual-branch selection diversity receiver of combining Selective Repeat-ARQ scheme and BCH channel coding (hybrid ARQ) in mobile cellular networks like UMTS is proposed. The aim is to provide maximal achievable throughput when a predefined channel code is employed under various Rayleigh fading channel conditions. Both spatially uncorrelated and correlated antenna branches are investigated for identical and non-identical channels. The numerical results show that significant redundancy coding has a reasonable effect on the overall throughput performance. In contrary, the channel coding influences significantly on the lower range of operating channel SNR in the selection combining receiver when identical and non-identical correlated antenna branches are considered.