Error analysis of TAS/MRC in Rayleigh fading channel with non-Gaussian noise

Transmit antenna selection with maximal ratio combining at the receiver (TAS/MRC) is a promising technique that can be used to avoid the hardware complexity of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system without jeopardizing the diversity gain. The generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) is used to model different kinds of additive noise including Gaussian, Laplacian, uniform, and impulsive. In this paper, we study the bit error performance of TAS/MRC system assuming flat Rayleigh fading channels perturbed by additive white generalized Gaussian noise (AWGGN). To this end, we provide a closed form expression for the average bit error rate of coherent modulation techniques in terms of Mejier’s G function that is readily available in many commercial mathematical software packages like MATLAB and Mathematica. Moreover, we study the asymptotic behavior of the BER at high signal to noise ratio (SNR). Analytical results are verified by simulation.