Performance analysis of delay-constrained communications over slow Rayleigh fading channels

In a typical wireless system, communications between a transmitter–receiver pair is subject to impairments such as intracell and intercell interference, as well as multipath fading. For practical wireless data transmission systems, e.g., UMTS or GPRS, it has been demonstrated by simulation and supported by real measurements that these impairments can be adequately modeled by hidden Markov models (HMMs). It has also been demonstrated that various types of wireless data arrival process can be modeled by a batch Markov arrival process (BMAP). This paper presents analytical methods for evaluating the packet queue length and packet delay probability distributions assuming that packet arrivals are modeled by a BMAP and packets are transmitted over channels with bursts of errors which are modeled by HMMs. In contrast with simulations, the analytical approach allows a system designer to find and test proper diversity, source and channel coding schemes, and communication protocols more efficiently. Analytical and simulation results are compared to determine the accuracy of the presented methods.