Precise performance analysis of MRC diversity in microcellular systems with cochannel interference

The outage and BER analysis of maximal ratio combining for bandlimited BPSK systems in microcellular system with cochannel interference is considered. A Nakagami/Rayleigh fading model is assumed. Spectrum raised-cosine and Beaulieu-Tan-Damen pulse shapes are employed. Exact closed-form expressions for outage probability with equal and distinct interferers powers are derived. An average bit error rate expression is derived using Gaussian approximation of the cochannel interference. Monte-Carlo simulation is used to validate the Gaussian approximation. The results are valid for arbitrary diversity order and desired user fading parameter. Slow flat fading, asynchronous timing and independent fading gains are assumed.