Performance analysis of L-branch equal gain combiners in equally correlated Rayleigh fading channels

Theoretical performance results for L-branch (L/spl ges/3) coherent equal-gain combining (EGC) in correlated fading channels are not known. This letter develops a novel approach for performance analysis of L-branch EGC in equally correlated Rayleigh fading channels. Such channel gains can be transformed into a set of conditionally independent channel gains. The cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the EGC output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is, therefore, derived. The symbol error rate (SER) of different modulation schemes with EGC in equally correlated Rayleigh fading channels is evaluated. Numerical results that illustrate the effects of equally correlated fading on the SER performance of EGC are also provided.