Performance comparison of MC-CDMA over frequency-selective Nakagami-m and Rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, the bit error rate performance of uplink MC-CDMA over frequency-selective Nakagami-m fading channels is analyzed. Both maximal ratio combining (MRC) and equal gain combining (EGC) receptions are considered in the evaluations. We address two scenarios: correlated subcarriers and independent subcarriers. Independency among subcarriers was often assumed in the literature; we shall demonstrate, however, that a frequency-selective Nakagami-m fading channel model may have been overemphasized for uplink MC-CDMA with MRC or EGC receptions compared to a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading model if all subcarriers are assumed to be independent.