Some integrals involving the Q/sub m/(a /spl square root/x; b /spl square root/ x) with application to error probability analysis of diversity receivers

Abstract

This paper derives closed-form formulas for two integrals involving the generalized Marcum Q-function with linear arguments Q/sub m/(a/spl radic/x,b/spl radic/x). These integrals are known to arise in the analysis of multichannel diversity reception of differentially coherent and noncoherent digital communications in Rayleigh and Nakagami-m channels. Applications of the results for efficient performance evaluation of the average bit error rates of dual branch selection diversity combining and postdetection equal gain combining over independent and correlated fading channels are also presented.