Exact analysis of postdetection combining for DPSK and NFSK systems over arbitrarily correlated Nakagami channels

Postdetection combining is a popular means to improve the bit error performance of DPSK and noncoherent FSK (NFSK) systems over fading channels. Nevertheless, the error performance of such systems in an arbitrarily correlated Nakagami environment is not available in the literature. The difficulty arises from inherent nonlinearity in noncoherent detection and from attempts to determine explicitly the probability density function of the total signal-to-noise ratio at the combiner output. We directly determine the error probability from the characteristic function of decision variables, resulting in closed-form solutions involving matrix differentiation. The performance calculation is further simplified by developing a recursive technique. The theory is illustrated by analyzing two feasible antenna arrays used in base stations for diversity reception, ending up with some findings of interest to system design.