Outage probability of radio cellular systems using maximal ratio combining in the presence of multiple interferers

Antenna diversity is an important technique to combat fading and reduce co-channel interferer (CCI). We present an analytical approach to derive the outage probability (OTP) for maximal ratio combining (MRC) in the presence of multiple CCIs. Based on the work presented by Cui, Falconer and Sheikh (see Proceedings of PIMRC'96, Taipei, Taiwan, p.53-7, 1996), the probability density function (PDF) of the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) is derived with antenna diversity. A selection of numerical results highlights the impact of the number of antenna elements, the number of CCIs and SNR on the OTP. Since the PDF of the SINR is independent of any specific modulation signal, the results can be easily extended to any type of modulation format.