Efficient bit error probability expression and very tight bound for maximal ratio combining diversity systems over Rayleigh fading channel

Bit Error Probability (BEP) provides a fundamental performance measure for wireless diversity systems. This paper presents two new exact BEP expressions for Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) diversity systems. One BEP expression takes a closed form, while the other is derived by treating the squared-sum of Rayleigh random variables as an Erlang variable. Due to the fact that the extant bounds are loose and could not properly characterize the error performance of MRC diversity systems, this paper presents a very tight bound. The numerical analysis shows that the new derived BEP expressions coincide with the extant expressions, and that the new approximation tightly bounds the accurate BEP.