On the Bit Error Probability and the Spectral Efficiency of Opportunistic Wireless Transmissions in Rician Fading Channels

Opportunistic systems take advantage of the wireless communication channel random behavior, since transmission is made only when fading amplitude is above a threshold value, which is calculated based on a transmission probability. This type of transmission draws attention because improves the system performance, and it is an interesting scheme for primary users in cognitive radio networks or is also an option for physical layer security. In this paper, we analyze the performance of opportunistic transmissions in Rician fading channels considering square-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (S-QAM) and non-square-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (NS-QAM). Exact closed-form expressions and approximations are derived to evaluate the average bit error probability (ABEP). An expression to calculate the mean spectral efficiency (SE) is also derived considering that a target ABEP must be guaranteed. The SE is calculated using the coverage radius obtained for each modulation used in the system. Hence, an algorithm for the radii calculation is also presented, which considers that the parameters of the Rician fading channel change in the cellular area. The results show that opportunistic transmission (OpT) mitigates the fading effects once the ABEP decays exponentially as the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is increased. Additionally, the proposed algorithm, along with the derived expressions, determine the scenarios where the SE is maximized.