Analysis of a transmit diversity scheme in fading channels and imperfect channel estimation

The theoretical analysis of the error performance of a simple transmit diversity scheme is carried out for Rayleigh and Rician fading using QPSK. A closed form expression is derived for the SER. The computer simulations which are performed matches the results obtained through the closed form expressions. The performance of the scheme with imperfect channel estimation using pilot signals is investigated and analyzed. It is found that the deterioration of performance in transmit diversity when there is channel estimation error is about 5 dB. The sensitivity of the system to estimation error is investigated by analyzing the effects of reducing the error caused by noise when estimating the channel.