Shadowed Fading in Indoor Off-Body Communications Channels: A Statistical Characterization using the κ − µ / Gamma Composite Fading Model

This paper investigates the characteristics of the shadowed fading observed in off-body communications channels at 5.8 GHz. This is realized with the aid of the κ-μ/gamma composite fading model, which assumes that the transmitted signal undergoes κ-μ fading, which is subject to multiplicative shadowing. Based on this, the total power of the multipath components, including both the dominant and scattered components, is subject to non-negligible variations that follow the gamma distribution. For this model, we present an integral form of the probability density function (PDF) as well as important analytic expressions for the PDF, cumulative distribution function, moments, and moment generating function. In the case of indoor off-body communications, the corresponding measurements were carried out in the context of four explicit individual scenarios, namely: line of sight (LOS), non-LOS walking, rotational, and random movements. The measurements were repeated within three different indoor environments and considered three different hypothetical body worn node locations. With the aid of these results, the parameters for the κ-μ/gamma composite fading model were estimated and analyzed extensively. Interestingly, for the majority of the indoor environments and movement scenarios, the parameter estimates suggested that dominant signal components existed even when the direct signal path was obscured by the test subject's body. In addition, it is shown that the κ-μ/gamma composite fading model provides an adequate fit to the fading effects involved in off-body communications channels. Using the Kullback-Leibler divergence, we have also compared our results with another recently proposed shadowed fading model, namely, the κ-μ/lognormal LOS shadowed fading model. It was found that the κ-μ/gamma composite fading model provided a better fit for the majority of the scenarios considered in this paper

Analytic Expressions and Bounds for Special Functions and Applications in Communication Theory

This paper is devoted to the derivation of novel analytic expressions and bounds for a family of special functions that are useful in wireless communication theory. These functions are the well-known Nuttall Q-function, incomplete Toronto function, Rice Ie-function, and incomplete Lipschitz-Hankel integrals. Capitalizing on the offered results, useful identities are additionally derived between the above functions and Humbert, Φ1, function as well as for specific cases of the Kampé de Fériet function. These functions can be considered as useful mathematical tools that can be employed in applications relating to the analytic performance evaluation of modern wireless communication systems, such as cognitive radio, cooperative, and free-space optical communications as well as radar, diversity, and multiantenna systems. As an example, new closed-form expressions are derived for the outage probability over nonlinear generalized fading channels, namely, α-η-μ, α-λ-μ, and α-κ-μ as well as for specific cases of the η-μ and λ-μ fading channels. Furthermore, simple expressions are presented for the channel capacity for the truncated channel inversion with fixed rate and corresponding optimum cutoff signal-to-noise ratio for single-antenna and multiantenna communication systems over Rician fading channels. The accuracy and validity of the derived expressions is justified through extensive comparisons with respective numerical results

Area under ROC curve of energy detection over generalized fading channels

A fast and reliable detection scheme is essential in several wireless applications such as radar and cognitive radio systems. Energy detection is such a method as it does not require a priori information of the received signal while it exhibits low implementation complexity and costs. Since the detection capability of ED is largely affected by the effects of multipath fading, this paper is devoted to a thorough analysis of energy detection based spectrum sensing over generalized fading conditions. To this end, analytical expressions are firstly derived using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) under additive white Gaussian noise. This analysis is subsequently extended to the case of generalized fading conditions characterized by k - μ and η - μ fading distributions. The offered results are novel and are employed in analyzing the corresponding performance. It is shown that fading phenomena result to detrimental effects on the performance of spectrum sensing since the deviation between severe and non-severe conditions is rather substantial

A Comprehensive Framework for Spectrum Sensing in Non-Linear and Generalized Fading Conditions

We derive a comprehensive analytical framework for the ED over generalized, extreme, and non-linear fading conditions which addresses the topic completely. This is carried out for both conventional and diversity receptions and it is based on the area under the ROC curve (AUC), which is an efficient performance measure that is widely used in physical sciences and engineering. This differentiates the considered methodology from the aforementioned routine approaches and additionally provides generic results on the arbitrary derivatives of the MGF of useful generalized processes. The asymptotic behavior of the derived expressions is also analyzed providing direct and concrete insights on the role and effect of the involved parameters on the ED performance. The offered analytic results are subsequently employed in quantifying the performance of ED over various types of fading conditions, which exhibits that ED performance is significantly degraded by even slight variations of the severity of fading. To this end, it is shown that the detrimental effects of fading can be effectively mitigated with the aid of square-law combining and switch-and-stay combining methods, as a low number of diversity branches can ensure sufficient and holistic performance improvement even in severe fading conditions

Relay Selection Based Full-Duplex Cooperative Systems under Adaptive Transmission

The present work analyzes multi-relay full-duplex systems with relay selection under multipath fading conditions in the context of channel capacity under: i) optimum power and rate adaptation; ii) truncated channel inversion with fixed rate. Useful analytic expressions are derived for these measures as well as for the associated optimum cut-off level. The offered results are then employed in the analysis of the corresponding end-to-end performance by also quantifying the effects of the involved relay self-interference. It is shown that high capacity levels are achieved even for a moderate number of relays and self-interference levels, at no considerably added system complexity. This is particularly useful in demanding emerging applications that are subject to transmit power constraints or fixed rate requirements

Bit Error Rate of Underlay Decode-and-Forward Cognitive Networks with Best Relay Selection

This paper provides an analytic performance evaluation of the bit error rate (BER) of underlay decode-and-forward cognitive networks with best relay selection over Rayleigh multipath fading channels. A generalized BER expression valid for arbitrary operational parameters is firstly presented in the form of a single integral, which is then employed for determining the diversity order and coding gain for different best relay selection scenarios. Furthermore, a novel and highly accurate closed-form approximate BER expression is derived for the specific case where relays are located relatively close to each other. The presented results are rather convenient to handle both analytically and numerically, while they are shown to be in good agreement with results from respective computer simulations. In addition, it is shown that as in the case of conventional relaying networks, the behaviour of underlay relaying cognitive networks with best relay selection depends significantly on the number of involved relays

Analytic solutions to a Marcum Q-function-based integral and application in energy detection of unknown signals over multipath fading channels

This work presents analytic solutions for a useful integral in wireless communications, which involves the Marcum Q-function in combination with an exponential function and arbitrary power terms. The derived expressions have a rather simple algebraic representation which renders them convenient both analytically and computationally. Furthermore, they can be useful in wireless communications and particularly in the context of cognitive radio communications and radar systems, where this integral is often encountered. To this end, we derive novel expressions for the probability of detection in energy detection based spectrum sensing over η - μ fading channels. These expressions are given in closed-form and are subsequently employed in analyzing the effects of generalised multipath fading conditions in cognitive radio systems. As expected, it is shown that the detector is highly dependent upon the severity of fading conditions as even slight variation of the fading parameters affect the corresponding performance significantly