Performance Analysis of Selection Combining over UAV-to-Ground Channels with Shadowing

In light of the growing demand for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-to-ground communications for beyond 5G systems, new fading channel models have been developed that take into account the impacts of shadowing. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the selection combining (SC) receiver over independent shadowed fading channels. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the shadowed channels is used to derive its probability distribution function (PDF) expression of the SC receiver. The average bit error rate (ABER), outage capacity, outage probability, and average channel capacity mathematical expressions are then obtained. The analytical expressions are validated by Monte-Carlo simulations.