Performance analysis of MQAM with MRC over Nakagami-m fading channels

A method for computing the exact average symbol error probability (SEP) of the rectangular M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) with maximum ratio combining (MRC) diversity over L independent and equal-correlated Nakagami-m fading channels with arbitrary fading index m is presented. Two models of MQAM receivers are analyzed. Closed-form expressions are provided for the average SEP in terms of the Appell and Gauss hypergeometric functions. Simplified error expressions are proposed when the product Lm is either integer or half integer. The distinction between the performance of the two MQAM schemes is discussed. Finally, the penalty in signal to noise ratio (SNR) due to equal-correlated Nakagami-m channel fading is investigated