Performance Analysis of Combining Space-Time Block Coding and Scheduling over Arbitrary Nakagami Fading Channels

In this paper, we investigate a combining space-time block coding (STBC) and opportunistic scheduling referred to as a joint diversity in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. We study the performance analysis of the joint diversity over the arbitrary Nakagami fading channels including a fading index of real and integer values. The exact symbol error rate (SER) expressions of the joint diversity are derived for phase shift keying (PSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) including quantification of both the diversity order and signal to noise ratio (SNR) gain. From analysis results, we show that the number of users and fading index improve the diversity order of the joint diversity for SER regardless of modulation types. On the other hand, the number of users and fading index degrade the SNR gain of the joint diversity for SER with both modulations. Further, this paper derives the exact average post-processing SNR, the exact outage probability and the exact ergodic capacity including the tight outage capacity of the joint diversity over the arbitrary Nakagami fading channels including the fading index of real and integer values. From analysis results, we show that both average post-processing SNR and ergodic capacity of the joint diversity is degraded as the fading index increases, while the outage capacity is improved.