A Model for Correlated Rician Fading Channels Based on a Finite Queue

We study the problem of approximating the family of hard-decision frequency-shift keying demodulated correlated flat Rician fading channels via a recently introduced queue-based channel (QBC) model for binary communication channels with memory. For a given ldquodiscretizedrdquo fading channel, we construct a QBC whose noise process is statistically ldquocloserdquo in the Kullback-Leibler sense to the error or noise process that is generated by the fading channel, and the modeling accuracy is evaluated in terms of noise autocorrelation function (ACF) and channel capacity. Numerical results indicate that the QBC provides a good approximation of the fading channels for a wide range of channel conditions. Furthermore, it estimates the noise ACF more accurately than the finite-state Markov models that have been recently studied by Pimentel , while, at the same time, remaining mathematically tractable.