IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 40, NO.

3, MARCH 1992

487

Transactions Papers
Uncoded and Coded Performance of MFSK
and DPSK in Nakagami Fading Channels
Paul J. Crepeau, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract-There are many communication systems employing degrees of freedom (where the number of degrees of freedom
noncoherent MFSK or DPSK that are required to operate in is greater than or equal to 1). It was introduced by Nakagami
channels with a fairly wide range of fading and scintillation [7] as an approximation to two other distributions that he had
conditions. To model these disturbances there are available two
generalizations of the Rayleigh fading channel: the Rician chan- previously employed, the Nakagami-n and the Nakagami-q.
nel and the Nakagami-m channel. Thus far, the majority of The first of these, the n-distribution, is the same as the Rician
analytical studies have utilized the Rician channel in preference to distribution. It is a noncentral X-distribution with two degrees
the Nakagami-m channel, and surprisingly, some basic results for of freedom, that is, the distribution of modulus of a complex
the Nakagami channel have been overlooked. In this paper, we Gaussian random variable whose components are uncorrelated
present uncoded and coded performance results for noncoherent
MFSK and DPSK in a slow nonselective Nakagami-m fading with nonzero mean and equal variance. The n-distribution was
channel. We give simple expressions for the asymptotic slopes introduced by Nakagami in the early 1940s to characterize
of probability of bit error for large signal-to-noise ratio, and fading channels at roughly the same time that Rice [SI applied
show that the effective order of diversity compared to an uncoded it to narrow-band noise problems. It is now referred to as the
Rayleigh channel is the product of two parameters, one for the
Nakagami-Rice distribution by ionospheric physicists, while
channel and one for the code. Finally, we present a comparison
of the uncoded Nakagami-m results to those of the Rician channel communication engineers call it simply the Rician distribution.
in order to show performance differences between these two Whereas the Nakagami-n (Rician) distribution spans the range
generalized fading channel models.
of fading distributions from Rayleigh fading to nonfading, a
second distribution, called the Nakagami-q, spans the range
from one-sided Gaussian fading to Rayleigh fading. The
I. INTRODUCTION
URING the past three decades there have been sev- q-distribution is the distribution of modulus of a complex
eral studies of communication system performance in Gaussian random variable whose components are uncorrelated
Nakagami-m fading channels. Most of this work has been with zero mean and unequal variance. The q-distribution was
directed toward the case of binary signaling, with and without investigated independently by Hoyt [9], a colleague of Rice,
diversity, for both coherent and noncoherent reception [ 11- [5]. and it is now referred to as the Nakagami-Hoyt [lo]-[12]
In [6], extension to larger signaling alphabets was considered, distribution. It is interesting to observe, in retrospect, the
and results were found for M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) pattern of parallel discovery by researchers in two nations
with coherent reception in Nakagami fading channels. With the during a period when scientific exchange was impossible.
In creating the vi-distribution, Nakagami was able to span
increasing use of M-ary orthogonal signaling with noncoherwith
one distribution the entire range from one-sided Gaussian
ent reception and error control coding in current commercial
and military systems, it is important to extend these previous fading to nonfading. However, the real importance of the
results. Accordingly, in this paper we present the uncoded Nakagami-m fading model lies in the fact that it can often
and coded performance of noncoherent M-ary frequency shift be used to fit experimental data. The literature contains rekeying (MFSK) and differentially coherent binary phase shift sults of many propagation studies where experimenters have
keying (DPSK) in a slow nonselective Nakagami-m amplitude found close agreement between the Nakagami distribution
and measured fading and scintillation data [7], [13]-[19].
fading channel with additive white Gaussian noise.
We begin with a brief historical introduction to Nakagami These include measurements on a variety of propagation
fading. In essence, the Nakagami-m fading distribution is a paths spanning nearly all frequency bands. To cite a few
central X-distribution generalized to a nonintegral number of examples: Nakagami-m fading was observed for HF skywave
transmission [7], UHF urban radio propagation [16], and
Paper approved by the Editor for Coding Theory and Applications of the
satellite links at VHF, UHF, and X-band [18], [19].
IEEE Communications Society. Manuscript received April 26, 1989; revised
May 21, 1990. This paper was presented in part at the 1988 IEEE Military
In addition to providing a useful fading model to fit experiCommunications Conference, San Diego, CA, October 23-26, 1988.
mental data, the Nakagami-m. distribution offers features of
The author is with the Information Technology Division, Naval Research
analytical convenience in comparison to the Rician distribuLaboratory, Washington, DC 20375.
IEEE Log Number 9106356.
tion. This is true because the Nakagami-m distribution is a

0090-6778/92$03.00 0 1992 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 40, NO. 3, MARCH 1992

488

central distribution, while the Rician is not. As a result of this

distinction, we find that analytical results for the Nakagami
model often possess greater mathematical simplicity than do
those for the Rician [20], [21]. In fairness, however, it should
be mentioned that there are some limitations associated with
the Nakagami-m fading model. First, it does not provide a
clear intuitive picture of the fading mechanism (in contrast
to the Rician model with its superposition of specular and
scattered received signal components). In addition, there is no
phase distribution associated with the Nakagami-m amplitude
distribution. Although the lack of phase information is of
no importance when considering noncoherent reception (as is
the case in this paper), it is frequently of great importance
in coherent communications. Finally, the goodness-of-fit tests
used by ionospheric physicists to match measured scintillation
data to a Nakagami-m distribution usually do not give special
weighting to the deep-fading tail of the distribution. As a
result, we sometimes have a better fit near the median of
the distribution than in the tail region, although it is the tail
behavior that is of greater significance to communications
systems performance [22].
In this paper, we first present the uncoded performance of
MFSK and DPSK in a Nakagami-vi fading channel. Next, we
extend these results to the coded case. Finally, in two Appendices, we examine the relationship between the Nakagami-m
channel and the Rician channel, and we summarize some
known results for the Nakagami-m channel.
11. UNCODEDPERFORMANCE
For orthogonal MFSK on a Nakagami-m channel, the
received signal in the interval ( 0 , T )has the form

r ( t )= R J 5 E p c o s ( w z t

+ e) + n ( t )

4k

m=20

i'i

Fig. 1. Nakagami-nt density function.

has an average value S E , = RE, = E,. With R = 1,

the p.d.f. in (2) is reduced to a one-parameter distribution
so that all of the results can be expressed in terms of the
single parameter m. In Fig. 1 we see several members of this
one-parameter family of Nakagami-m distributions.
Following Barrow [l], we find the symbol error probability
for Nakagami-m fading by averaging the nonfading symbol
error probability over the underlying fading random variable.
Barrow considered the binary case only, but in the following
we generalize to MFSK. Here the symbol error probability is
given by

(1)

where E, is the average received symbol energy (under a

normalization described belob), .(t) is AWGN with onesided power spectral density No, 8 is a uniformly distributed
random variable (0,27r), w,is one of M orthogonally spaced
frequencies, and R is a Nakagami-m random variable whose
p.d.f. is given by [7]

where p ( R ) is given by ( 2 ) with R = 1. Evaluating (3) and

converting from symbols to bits using

we find the MFSK bit error probability on a Nakagami-m

channel to be
where

m
and

ni

R2
m=var(R2)

'a
1

are the scale and shape parameters of the distribution. For

m = 1 we have a Rayleigh fading channel, and as m
00
we have a channel that becomes nonfading (as the p.d.f. tends
to an impulse function). At the other extreme, for m = 112
we have a one-sided Gaussian fading distribution.
We restrict our discussion to slow nonselective fading. With
no loss of generality, we adopt the convenient normalization
R = 1 so that the received energy in the fading channel, R2E,,
--f

+ &(log,

M)

(4)

In (4) for rn -+ 00 and m = 1, we get the familiar nonfading

and Rayleigh fading special cases. Also in (4), by letting
M = 2 and replacing E b by 2Eb we get the DPSK result.
This is one of the binary results found by Barrow [l]. (See
Appendix B.)
The MFSK results are plotted with parameters m =
00,20,10,5,2,1, and 0.5 in Figs. 2-8, respectively. In each
of these figures, we have a single value of m and alphabet
sizes M = 2, 4, 8, 16, and 00. Also in each figure, as well
as in the remaining figures to be presented in this paper, the

489

CREPEAU: UNCODED AND CODED PERFORMANCE OF MFSK AND DPSK

NAKAGAMI CHANNEL

Fig. 2. MFSK performance for

Fig. 5. MFSK performance for n7 = 6 .

111 + 3c.

v-'

-T-

ci

NAKAGAMI CHANNEL
m=20

10-1
10-2

a
10-3

n
10-~
U

10-6
10-7-r5

, ,

, \ ' , A\\,

, I , , , , ,

, , ,

10

15

20

25

30

15

20

25

30

EblNo (dB)

EblNO (dB)

Fig. 3. MFSK performance for

10

112

= 20.

Fig. 6. MFSK performance for

11)

=2

Fig. 7. MFSK performance for

117

= 1.

10-1

>

5m

10-2

10-3

m
t
10-6

DPSK result may be found by shifting the M = 2 curve by

3 dB to the left.
One important feature of the result in (4) is that for large
& , / N o ,Pb varies asymptotically as the inverse mth power of
& , / N O .(The asymptotic slope of log Pb versus logEb/No is
-m.) In a sense, a Nakagami-m channel behaves a Rayleigh

10-6

fading channel with m orders of diversity.

111. CODEDPERFORMANCE

We restrict our discussion to linear binary block codes

although the analysis could be easily extended to the nonbinary
case. The performance of a binary block code of length n and

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 40, NO. 3, MARCH 1992

490

NAKAGAh4l CHANNEL

10-1

10-2

Fj

10-3

m
U

NAKAGAMI CHANNEL
m-0.5

n
a

L
Fig. 8. MFSK performance for

7n

= 0.5.

Fig. 9. Coded MFSK performance for

I??

cc

minimum distance d with bounded distance decoding on a

memoryless binary symmetric channel (BSC) with raw error
probability p is given by [23]

where pi is the average number of errors remaining in the

corrected codeword given that the channel caused i raw errors,
and t is the error correction capability of the code (t is
the integer part of (d - 1)/2). For MFSK modulation on a
Nakagami-m channel, the raw error probability p is equal
to the right-hand side of (4) with Eb replaced by rC&,
where r, is the code rate. We choose the extended Golay
(24,12) code as a specific example. Although this code is
not necessarily the best code for the Nakagami channel, it
serves as a useful illustrative example to bring out the main
features of coded performance on a Nakagami channel. It also
enables us to obtain exact results since the values of pi are
well known [23] for the extended Golay code: /'34 = 4,p5 =
8, Os = 120/19,. . . ,pz4 = 24. Throughout the analysis we
also assume perfect bit interleaving to assure that the BSC is
memoryless.
The exact results for coded MFSK are shown in Figs. 9-15,
with the coded results shown as dashed lines. In the same
figures, the uncoded results are shown as solid lines so that
the coding gain is made apparent. We note a dramatic increase
in coding gain for decreasing values of m. It is well known
that large coding gains are possible for the Rayleigh fading
channels in comparison to the nonfading channel, but in
Figs. 9-15 we see that the coding gain increases in a smooth,
continuous manner as the fading increases.
In the coded case, for large Eb/N0, we find from (4) and
(5) that Pb varies as the inverse m ( t 1)th power of &,/NO.
(This asymptotic slope can be seen in Figs. 9-15.) The simple
product m ( t 1) contains the fundamental channel parameter
together with a key code parameter. The coded system has an
effective order of diversity equal to m(t 1) when compared
to an uncoded Rayleigh fading system. Similar conclusions
can be drawn if we decode using channel measurement information. With a Chase algorithm [24], it is possible to correct

Eb/No (dB)

Fig. 10. Coded MFSK performance for

711

= 20.

NAKAGAMI CHANNEL
10-1

>

fm

10-2

10-3

a
n

t
m
10-6
lo-:

10

15

20

EblNo (dB)

Fig. 11. Coded MFSK performance for m = 10.

as many as d - 1 errors. In this case the decoded Pb varies

asymptotically (for large & , / N o )as the inverse (md)th power
of &/No. Here, we have an effective m d orders of diversity
compared to an uncoded Rayleigh fading channel. Again, the
diversity (asymptotic slope) is equal to the product of two fundamental parameters, one for the channel and one for the code.

49 1

CREPEAU: UNCODED AND CODED PERFORMANCE OF MFSK AND DPSK

10-1

10-1

10-2

10-2

__ UNCODED

>

I-

8 10-3
n
a

t
m

t
m
10-6

10-~
10-6

IO-^-

Fig. 12. Coded MFSK performance for

711

Fig. 15. Coded MFSK performance for ?n = 0.5.

= 5.

Nakagami-m channel. These results are mathematically simple

and are potentially useful in evaluating performance of several
current MFSK and DPSK systems that operate on channels
with a wide variety of fading or scintillation conditions.
APPENDIXA
COMPARISON OF MFSK PERFORMANCE ON
AND NAGAKAMI
CHANNELS

RICIAN

Rician fading is characterized by a two-parameter ( a , a')

distribution with p.d.f.

R
p ( R )= 2
EblNO (de)

Fig. 13. Coded MFSK performance for

177

-(R'+a2)

*02

(aR)
10 7

R 2 0.

(Al)

The well known result [25] for bit error probability for
noncoherent MFSK is found by using (Al) in (3). This yields

= 2.

where

and the parameters X and y2 are given by

X = (log,M)-

1-7_5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Eb/No ( d W

Fig. 14. Coded MFSK performance for m

1.

IV. CLOSING
REMARKS
Of the two generalizations of Rayleigh fading, the Rician
generalization has received the greater share of attention in
the past, while the Nakagami generalization has been relatively neglected. To partially fill this void, we have presented
new results for uncoded and coded MFSK and DPSK on a

Eb
NO

and

y2 =

2a2

-.

U2

In the above, Eb is the average received bit energy and y2

is the ratio of energy in the scattered component to energy in
the direct component.
According to Nakagami [7], there is a close fit between the
m-distribution and the Rician distribution when the following
parameter relationship holds:
y2

m - dm2 - m

for m 2 1.

The fit is exact in the extremes

m = 1,

y2 + 00

m+w,

y2=0

(Rayleigh fading)
(nonfading)

(A3)

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 40, NO. 3, MARCH 1992

492

-.

Fig. 16. Nakagami-Rician comparison for

in

= 2.

Fig. 18. Nakagami-Rician comparison for

- NAKAGAMI
m=5

,;.

. ,_
.

------

y2
RICE
= 0.118

. .

. '. . ... .,
..:...
:
~.
._
..:..:.., .

171

= 10.

in

= 20.

>
t

'

10-6F

m
t

-5

10
E#O

15

20

25

30

(dB)

Fig. 17. Nakagami-Rician comparison for

717

EblNO (dB)

= 5.

Fig. 19. Nakagami-Rician comparison for

but between these values a close fit applies only over a

limited range. This is seen in Figs. 16-19, where we plot
the Nakagami-m results as solid lines and the Rician results
as dotted lines for alphabet sizes &f = 2, 4, 8, and 16. Each
of these four figures uses one of the following four parameter
pairs from (A3):
m = 2,

y2 = 0.414

m = 5,

y2 = 0.118

m = 10,

y2 = 0.054

m = 20,

y2 = 0.026.

this is not true, as can be seen in Figs. 16-19. The difference

in behavior below the 1%point Of the CUmUlatiVe distribution
function leads to a large difference in required EbINO to
achieve a prescribed value of Pb, when Pb is small.
APPENDIX
B
SPECIALCASES

The binary results for the four major modulation types

on a Nakagami-m channel were found by Barrow [l]. For
noncoherent BFSK and DPSK these results are special cases
We see that the bit error probabilities for the Nakagami-m
of (4)
channel and the Rician channel fit closely for small Eb/No;
m
Pb=
m
otherwise, the departure can be considerable.
(B1)
2 m+ar
It has been reported that there is excellent agreement between the Nakagami-m and Rician distributions between the were T = &/No and
1 and 99% points of the cumulative distribution functions [26].
NCBFSK
From this it would be easy to infer that these distributions are
DPSK.
nearly equivalent in terms of error probability performance, but

'(-)

493

CREPEAU: UNCODED AND CODED PERFORMANCE OF MFSK AND DPSK

TABLE I

112
1

112

CFSK
CPSK

NCFSK
DPSK

[12] P. Beckmann and A. Spizzichino, The Scattering of Electromagnetic

Waves from Rough Surfaces. Nonvood, M A Artech House, 1987.
[13] H.E. Whitney and C. Cantor, Amplitude and fade rate statistics for
equatorial and auroral scintillations, in Effects of the Ionosphere on
Space Systems and Communications, J. M. Goodman, Ed. Washington,
DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.
[14] H.E. Whitney, J. Aarons, R.S. Allen, and D.R. Seemann, Estimation of the cumulative probability distribution function of ionospheric
scintillations. Radio Sci.. vol. 7. no. 12. nD. 1095-1104. Dec. 1972.
(151 E. J. Fremouw and H. F. Bates, Worldwide behavior of average
VHF-UHF scintillation, Radio Sci., vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 863-869, Oct.
1971.
1161
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. H. Suzuki, A statistical model for urban propagation, IEEE Trans.
Commun., vol. COM-25, pp. 673-680, July- 1977.
[17] J. H, Roberts, Phase-difference distribution for a narrow-band nonGaussian noise and related statistics, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory,
vol. IT-34, pp. 1483-1490, Nov. 1988.
[18] E. J. Fremouw, R. C. Livingston, and D. A. Miller, On the statistics of
scintillating signals, J. Amos. Terr. Phys., vol. 42, pp. 717-731, Aug.
1980.
[19] Sa. Basu, E. M. MacKenzie, Su. Basu, E. Costa, P. F. Fougere, H. C.
Carlson, and H. E. Whitney, 250 MHz/GHz scintillation parameters in
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Commun., vol. SAC-5, pp. 102-115, Feb. 1987.
[20] P. J. Crepeau, Asymptotic performance of M-ary orthogonal modulation in generalized fading channels, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 36,
pp. 1246-1248, Nov. 1988.
Performance of FH/BFSK with generalized fading in worst-case
[21] -,
partial band interference, IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 8, no. 5,
June 1990.
[22] S. Stein, Fading channel issues in system engineering, IEEE J. Select.
Areas
vol. SAC-5, no, 2,
1987,
[23] J. P. Odenwalder, Error Control Coding Handbook. Ldolla, CA: Linkabit Corporation, 1976.
[24] D. Chase, A class of algorithms for decoding block codes with channel
measurement information, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. IT-18,
pp. 170-182, Jan. 1972.
[25] G. L. Turin, Error probabilities for binary symmetric ideal reception through nonselective slow fading and noise, Proc. IRE, vol. 46,
pp. 1603-1619, Sept. 1958.
[26] P. D. Shaft, On the relationship between scintillation index and Rician
fading, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. COM-22, pp. 731-732, May 1974.
[27] M. Abramowitz and I. Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions
(NBS Applied Math. Series, Number 55). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.
I

For coherent reception, Barrow found the corresponding pSK

and FSK results, each expressible in terms of a hypergeometric
function. Recentlv.
151 has shown that all four of these
.,, Woinar

can be expressed as a sing1e

beta function
(defined by 6.6.2 in [27])
L

1
Pb = 2 I n l ( m ,b)
m+a.r

(132)

where a and b are chosen according to Table I.

Also, it has been shown [20] that the large alphabet
( M --t .o) result for both coherent and noncoherent MFSK
can be expressed as the incomplete gamma function (defined
by 6.5.1 in [27])
033)
Thus, we see that the MFSK bit error probability expression
given in (4) has the remarkable property that it is an incomplete
beta function for M = 2 and an incomplete gamma function
for M -+ CO.

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[71 M. Nakagami, The m-distribution-A general formula of intensity distribution of fading, in Statistical Methods in Radio Wave Propagation,
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a .

~~

Paul J. Crepeau (M58-SM84) was born in

Woonsocket, RI, on October 17, 1935. He received
the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Rhode
Island, Kingston, in 1957, and the M.E.E. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY,
in 1960 and 1967, respectively.
From 1957 to 1961 he was employed by the
Sperry Gyroscope Company, Great Neck, NY,
and from 1961 to 1972 he was a member of
the Department of Electrical Engineering at the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. In 1972 he was appointed Presidential Intern
at the U.S. Army Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, NJ. Since 1973 he
has been a member of the Information Technology Division of the U S . Naval
Research Laboratory, Washington, DC. He has also taught many courses in the
Washington, DC, area and he is currently an Adjunct Professor of Electrical
Engineering at the George Washington University.