Sensitivity to timing errors in EGC and MRC techniques

The effect of imperfect timing is analyzed in equal gain combining (EGC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC) techniques over Rayleigh and Nakagami-m fading channels with binary phase-shift keying modulation. In the case of EGC, the bit-error probability is derived, while in the case of MRC, error rate bounds are presented. Theoretical results are justified by computer simulation. Numerical results demonstrate that both EGC and MRC are fairly sensitive to timing errors, and comparatively, MRC is more sensitive.