Analysis of hybrid selection/maximal-ratio diversity combiners with Gaussian errors

The paper examines the impact of Gaussian distributed weighting errors (in the channel gain estimates used for coherent combination) on both the output statistics of a hybrid selection/maximal-ratio (SC/MRC) receiver and the degradation of the average symbol-error rate (ASER) performance as compared with the ideal case. New expressions are derived for the probability density function, cumulative distribution function and moment generating function (MGF) of the coherent hybrid SC/MRC combiner output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The MGF is then used to derive exact, closed-form, ASER expressions for binary and M-ary modulations in conjunction a nonideal hybrid SC/MRC receiver in a Rayleigh fading environment. Results for both selection combining (SC) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) are obtained as limiting cases. Additionally, the effect of the weighting errors on both the outage rate of error probability and the average combined SNR is investigated. These analytical results provide insights into the tradeoff between diversity gain and combination losses, in concert with increasing orders of diversity branches in an energy-sharing communication system.