Performance of Optimum Detection Receivers in Amplitude-Fading Channels

Abstract

The effect of polarity-preserved amplitude fading on the detection of otherwise known signals in additive white Gaussian noise is investigated for several different models of the channel. Both the slow-fading and the fast (independent) fading problems are considered. A simplifying assumption is introduced to establish the general effects of the fading problem. For the slow-fading channel, the polarity preserving property leads to the same receiver design but different performance curves for the different models of amplitude fading. In the fast-fading channel, the various models lead to different receiver designs while their performance curves approach those obtained by the optimum receiver in a “signal known-exactly” detection problem as the fading rate is increased. The receiver-operating-characteristic curves for the several models assumed are presented to illustrate these effects. [Work supported by the U. S. Office of Naval Research, Code 468.]