Performance of RCPC codes with soft-decision decoding over Nakagami-m fading channels

The analytical upper bounds on the pairwise error probability of rate compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes, using coherent BPSK signals over slow frequency nonselective Nakagami-m fading channels with AWGN, are evaluated. With perfect channel state information (CSI) assumption, we use a direct integral with the Nakagami-m probability density function to obtain a closed form upper bound. For the case without CSI, we find an approximated upper bound for the high SNR cases and the approximation can be justified for signal to noise ratio (SNR) E/sub s//N/sub 0/ /spl Gt/ 1.5 dB.