Calculating Outage Probability of Block Fading Channels Based on Moment Generating Functions

Abstract

Block fading channels present a realistic model in many communication scenarios. We propose a method by which the outage probability of block fading channels can be evaluated in a straighforward and computationally efficient manner by utilizing the moment generating function of a single block's mutual information. The flexibility of moment generating functions helps obtain outage probabilities in various cases such as wideband noise jamming and multi-access interference. The effect of discrete input alphabets on outage is also investigated and turns out to be vital especially under interference.