Title :
A simple polynomial approximation to the gaussian Q-function and its application
Author :
Chen, Yunfei ; Beaulieu, Norman C.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Eng., Univ. of Warwick, Coventry
fDate :
2/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A simple polynomial approximation to the Gaussian Q-function is proposed, based on the observation that a Gaussian random variable can be well approximated by a sum of uniform random variables. The approximation can be used to obtain accurate explicit approximations to problems that otherwise do not have explicit solutions or approximate explicit solutions. As an example, an explicit expression for the average symbol error rate of M-ary pulse amplitude modulation in lognormal channels is derived using the new approximation, and the approximate symbol error rate is shown to be very close to the exact value.
Keywords :
fading channels; polynomial approximation; pulse amplitude modulation; Gaussian Q-function; average symbol error rate; fading channel; lognormal channels; polynomial approximation; uniform random variables; AWGN; Amplitude modulation; Chebyshev approximation; Digital modulation; Error analysis; Fading; Polynomials; Pulse modulation; Random variables; Signal to noise ratio; Approximation, Gaussian Q-function, polynomial, symbol error rate;
Journal_Title :
Communications Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LCOMM.2009.081754