An average error probability evaluation in a fading environment using finite state Markov channel for LEO satellite communication system

Recent research shows that fading channels have a much larger capacity than anticipated with traditional approaches. This modem view on fading channels encouraged us to characterize these channels more precisely for better identification and use of wireless channel capacity. Since the Markov model-is a natural way to approximate a channel with memory, many people have considered finite state first-order Markov modeling for describing a wireless communication channel. In this paper, we first introduce the relationship between a physical fading channel and the corresponding finite state Markov Model (FSMC) in case of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system, which can be used for performance evaluation in an M-order quadrature amplitude-modulation (MQAM) transmission scheme by deriving an analytical expression of average bit error rate in Rayleigh fading channel. By establishing the FSMC, we show that the FSMC is accurate enough to evaluate the performance of MQAM modulation scheme to be implemented on board a LEO satellite communication system. (C) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.