Exact Method for the Error Probability Calculation of Three-Dimensional Signal Constellations

The contribution of this letter is the computation of exact symbol error probability (SEP) of three-dimensional (3-D) signal constellations over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The originality of the proposed method is that it can be applied to any arbitrary 3-D constellation whose decision regions may not meet at right angles. We express the SEP in a triple integral form which is further simplified. The simplified form requires a single integral evaluation of standard "erf" function. Using the derived exact SEP formula, we plot SEP for a number of selected 3-D constellations. The SEP obtained using the proposed formula is validated by simulation results. It is also compared with the union bound approximation, an upper bound for SEP.