Asymptotic error probability analysis of quadratic receivers in Rayleigh-fading channels with applications to a unified analysis of coherent and noncoherent space-time receivers

A general, asymptotic (high signal-to-noise (SNR)) error analysis is introduced for quadratic receivers in frequency-flat and multipath Rayleigh-fading channels with multiple transmit and receive antennas. Asymptotically tight expressions for the pairwise error probabilities are obtained for coherent, noncoherent, and differentially coherent space-time receivers. Not only is our unified analysis applicable to more general modulation schemes and/or channel models than previously considered, but it also reveals a hitherto unrecognized eigenvalue structure that is common to all of these problems. In addition to providing an easy recipe for computing the asymptotic pairwise error rates, we make some conclusions regarding criteria for the design of signal constellations and codes such as (a) the same design criteria apply for both correlated and independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) fading processes and (b) for noncoherent communications, unitary signals are optimal in the sense that they minimize the asymptotic union bound.