Novel Tight Closed-Form Bounds for the Symbol Error Rate of EGC and MRC Diversity Receivers Employing Linear Modulations Over α -μ Fading

In this paper, we propose novel lower and upper bounds on the average symbol error rate (SER) of the dual-branch maximal-ratio combining and equal-gain combining diversity receivers assuming independent branches. M -ary pulse amplitude modulation and M -ary phase shift keying schemes are employed and operation over the α -μ fading channel is assumed. The proposed bounds are given in closed form and are very simple to calculate as they are composed of a double finite summation of basic functions that are readily available in the commercial software packages. Furthermore, the proposed bounds are valid for any combination of the parameters α and μ as well as M . Numerical results presented show that the proposed bounds are very tight when compared to the exact SER obtained via performing the exact integrations numerically making them an attractive much simpler alternative for SER evaluation studies.