Generalized Selection Combining in Generalized Correlated Nakagami-m Fading

The exact performance of selection combining (SC), hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (H-S/MRC), and threshold-based hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (T-HS/MRC) in correlated Nakagami-m fading for positive integer values of fading parameter m, is analyzed for a particular correlation structure. This correlation model though not general, is much more general than the equal correlation case and includes equal correlation as a special case. The symbol error rate and outage probability of the three schemes are obtained by transforming the correlated branch gains into a set of conditionally independent branch gains. Numerical and simulation results show excellent agreement with theoretical results.