Cramer-Rao Bound Approach and Error Performance for Spatial Modulation over Beckmann Fading Channels

Spatial modulation (SM) is a promising low-complexity alternative to the state-of-art multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes due to its unique transmission approach. In this work, the impact of channel imperfections on the performance of SM-MIMO systems are investigated over generalized Beckmann fading channels, which introduce a versatile multipath fading model that includes several distributions such as Ricean, Nakagami-m and Beaulieu-Xie, as special cases. Specifically, an optimum maximum likelihood detection (MLD) method is proposed and the average pairwise error probability (APEP) is calculated by analytical derivations. Cramer-Rao bound approach is utilized for further improvement on decreasing the deteriorating effects that rise from estimation errors. The obtained results, confirmed by computer simulations, provide a comprehensive perspective to the performance of the SM-MIMO wireless communication systems.