Outage Probability Analysis of Selection and Switch-and-Stay Combining Diversity Receivers Over the α-μ Fading Channel with Co-Channel Interference

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of two dual-branch diversity techniques operating over the alpha-mu fading channel in presence of a dominant co-channel interferer with a minimum desired signal power constraint. These two diversity schemes are selection combining and switch-and-stay combining. We derive expressions for the outage probability in both cases, which are very simple to calculate numerically using the commercially available mathematical packages. The obtained expressions are valid for integer values of the parameter mu and, in many special cases, they reduce to either a closed form or to expressions with finite-limit integrals that can also be easily evaluated. Also, our expressions reduce to previously published well-known results for the Rayleigh as well as the Weibull fading channels as special cases. We present a set of numerical results which show the effect of fading severity of both the desired signal and the interferer on the performance.