A Simple Expression of BER Performance in COFDM Systems over Fading Channels

Both adaptive modulation and diversity combining are attractive techniques to combat fading and these two can be applicable to each digital-modulated symbol in OFDM transmission. In this letter, aiming to combat severe fading more effectively than the adaptive modulation, we theoretically analyze the benefit of a frequency diversity scheme within one OFDM symbol, which is a simple kind of coded OFDM (COFDM) based on IEEE 802.16 protocols. A simple closed form equation of bit error rate (BER) is derived, and then the advantages of correlated diversity gain and interference suppression by the diversity scheme are verified by both theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. key words: COFDM, diversity combining, fading correlation, eigenvector conversion, closed form equation