Error probability analysis for 16 STAR-QAM in frequency-selective Rician fading with diversity reception

The bit-error rate (BER) performance of differential 16 STAR-QAM in frequency-selective Rician fading channels with diversity reception is theoretically analyzed for three different types of delay profiles: double-spike, one-sided exponential, and Gaussian profiles as well as two kinds of pulse-shaping filtering: a raised cosine (RC) Nyquist signaling pulse and the rectangular pulse. The effect of time delay between line-of-sight (LOS) and multipath components is also included in the analysis and shown to degrade the system performance significantly.