On error rates of orthogonal space-time block coding over fading channels with impulsive noise

The theoretical symbol error rate (SER) of orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) over fading channels with impulsive noise was analyzed from a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) perspective. Based on the equivalent scalar channel induced by STBC, the probability density functions (pdf) of the instantaneous SNR per symbol after STBC decoding were given for various fading channels. The quasi-static assumption was made for the flat fading channels which were corrupted by impulsive noise modeled as an ε-mixture Gaussian distribution. The closed-form expressions for the average SER of OSTBC over Rayleigh, Rician and Nakagami-m fading channels were derived for MPSK and MQAM modulations. These results enabled one to evaluate the performance of OSTBC in impulsive noise environment. In addition, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to corroborate the analysis.