Frequency-Selective Fading Effects in Digital Mobile Radio with Diversity Combining

we analyze the effects of frequency-selective fading in a cellular mobile radio system that uses 1) phase-shift keying (PSK) with cosine rolloff pulses, and 2) space diversity with maximal-radio combining. The distorting phenomena with which we deal are multipath fading (which produces the frequency selectivity), shadow fading, and cochannel interference. The relevant quality measure is defined to be the bit error rate averaged over the multipath fading, denoted by (BER). The relevant system performance characteristic is defined to be the probability distribution for (BER), taken over the ensemble of shadow fadings and locations of the desired and interfering mobiles. To obtain numerical results, we use a combination of analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, invoke widely accepted models for the multipath and shadow fadings, and assume a cellular system with seven channel sets and centrally located base stations. The outcome is a set of performance curves that reveal the influences of various system and channel parameters. These include: the number of modulation levels (two or four), the diversity order, the shape of the multipath delay spectrum, and the standard deviation (or delay spread, τ
0
) of the multipath delay spectrum. Practical factors accounted for in these assessments include fading- and interference-related timing recovery errors and combiner imperfections. Our results highlight the importance of the ratio
\tau_{0}/T
, where
T
is the digital symbol period. They show that the delay spectrum shape is of no importance for
\tau_{0}/T \leq 0.2
, but can have a profound influence for
\tau_{0}/T \geq 0.3
. We also find that using 4-PSK leads to better detection performance, in certain cases, than using 2-PSK.