Robust receivers for wireless communications over fading channels

Abstract

This report discussed the work that the student has done over the past 26 weeks on his final-year project which was to investigate the different types of diversity combining techniques used to improve the bit-error rate performance of the wireless communication systems. In this report, these techniques were simulated to find out if it improves the reliability of the message signals which have undergone various different types of interferences and channel fading during its transmission process. Next, from these techniques, comparisons will then be done to study which of these techniques is the best in improving the bit-error rate performance of the signals. These diversity combining techniques include Equal-Gain Combining (EGC), Maximal-Ratio Combining (MRC) and Selection Combining (SC). In this project, the types of digital modulation schemes used to modulate the signals were binary frequency shift keying (BFSK) and binary phase shift keying (BPSK). The types of channel fading and interference that were simulated in the simulations are Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), Rayleigh fading and Rician fading. Simulations were done using the MATLAB software where parameters such as bit-error rate (BER) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were used to evaluate the reliability of the message signals. In addition, these simulation results were also compared to the theoretical results which the student had acquired during his literature review.