Wireless Pers Commun (2015) 85:2233–2243

DOI 10.1007/s11277-015-2901-5

Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-

Ratio Combining with Antenna Selection in Nakagami-
m Fading channels

Sudakar Singh Chauhan1 • Sanjay Kumar2

Published online: 22 July 2015

 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract This correspondence presents the channel capacity analysis of maximal-ratio

combining with transmit antenna selection (TAS/MRC) in frequency-flat Nakagami-
m fading channel with variable power and rate allocation techniques. In this paper, we
evaluated exact closed-form expressions of channel capacity for TAS/MRC under different
adaptive transmission techniques (1) optimal simultaneous power and rate allocation (opra)
(2) optimal rate allocation with constant transmit power (ora) (3) channel inversion with
fixed rate (cifr) and (4) truncated version of (cifr). An exact closed-form expression for
channel capacity has been derived in uncorrelated Nakagami-m fading channels with single
infinite series of tabulated function while the fading index is a real value. Numerical results
illustrate the impact of fading severity on the channel capacity and outline the performance
characteristics between the distinctive allocation schemes.

Keywords Adaptive transmission  Antenna selection  Channel capacity  Maximum

ratio-combining (MRC)  Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)

1 Introduction

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have attracted remarkable interest in

recent times due to their ability to provide significant performance enhancement in terms of
spectral efficiency and reliability of mobile radio channels [1, 2]. However, a major
drawback in the deployment of multiple antennas at both ends of a wireless channel would
require the implementation of multiple radio frequency (RF) chains that consist of
expensive hardware blocks.

& Sudakar Singh Chauhan

sudakarbits@gmail.com
1
Department of Electronics and Communication, NIT Kurukshetra, Haryana 136119, India
2
Department of Electronics and Communication, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra,
Ranchi 835215, India

123
2234 S. S. Chauhan, S. Kumar

Antenna selection approach is an efficient and practical solution to overcome the cost
and hardware complexity of MIMO system while preserving the benefits of all antennas, is
proposed in [3–7]. The primary goal behind antenna selection is to prefer only the optimal
set of antennas at both transmit and/or receive ends in MIMO systems to maximize the
spectral efficiency and improve error performance. The upper bounds for MIMO system
capacity has been obtained by selecting the excellent subset of antenna at one link end in
[3]. The transmit antenna selection (TAS) was applied in [4] and the symbol error rate
(SER) has been investigated for M-ary signal. The error performance analysis of TAS/
MRC was evaluated over Nakagami-m fading channels in [5]. In [6], authors has been
examined the SER expression for binary and M-ary modulations over an independent and
non-identically distributed (i.n.d.) Nakagami fading channels. Authors in [7] has been
presented the TAS with switch-and-examine (SEC) system and outage probability, average
received SNR per branch, and SER expressions for different modulation schemes over an
i.n.d. Rayleigh fading has been derived. It has been noticed that with the estimation of
fewer branches, the performance of TAS/SEC system is superior compared to that of TAS/
SC system. The capacity of fading channels varies which is based on the availability of
channel state information at the receiver (CSIR) and at the transmitter (CSIT) of the
wireless link. The CSIT techniques are also known as adaptive transmission (AT) tech-
niques. The CSI estimated at the receiver consist of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) level
and is fed back to the transmitter. Then, AT can be operated on one frame to other frame so
that permitting for distinct adjustments among the attainable channel capacity and the
corresponding implementation complexity. In [8], authors have been evaluated average
channel capacity of diversity-combining techniques under CSIT techniques over Rayleigh
fading channel. Authors in [9], has been derived the capacity of orthogonal space–time
block code (OSTBC) in Rayleigh fading under distinct AT and estimation error. The
capacity of log-normal channels has been analytical derived in [10] over distinct AT
techniques. Authors in [11] introduced asymptotic capacity analysis at high and low SNRs
under CSIT techniques. In [12] and [13], authors has been evaluated the capacity of
OSTBC system under various AT techniques over correlated Nakagami and Weibull
MIMO fading channels respectively.
The analytical comparison of average channel capacity of TAS/MRC with AT tech-
niques over uncorrelated Nakagami-m fading channel has not been studied. Thus, this
correspondence fills the gap by evaluating the exact channel capacity expression for TAS/
MRC under variable power and rate adaptation techniques over Nakagami-m fading
channel. Our outcomes evaluated the upper bound attainable spectral efficiency of TAS/
MRC for any practical application.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: First, in Sect. 2, the characteri-
zation of TAS/MRC system-model is presented. In Sect. 3, we examine the channel
capacity expression of TAS/MRC for the considered power and rate adaptation schemes.
Finally, Sect. 4 presents numerical results, followed by concluding statements in Sect. 5.

2 MIMO TAS/MRC System and Channel Models

We assume a TAS/MRC (Nt, 1; Nr) system in Nakagami frequency non selective fading
channel environment with Nt transmit and Nr receive antennas. Let the knowledge of CSI is
perfectly available at the receiver and based on which receiver selects
  one out of Nt
transmit antennas through an error free feedback links. Let H ¼ hij 2 CNr Nt be the

123
Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-Ratio… 2235

complex channel matrix follows the Nakagami-m distribution and the coefficient of
channel are modeled as hij  CN ð0; 1Þ. The input–output relationship at any time t can be
expressed as
Y ¼ HX þ V ð1Þ
where matrix Y 2 C Nr 1 is complex received signal column vector, X 2 CNt 1 is the
complex transmitted signal column vector and V 2 CNr 1 is a receiver noise vector and are
modeled as V  CN ð0; N0 Þ. We have selected a single transmit antenna for data trans-
mission at any time with largest channel gain to maximize the received signal power,
denoted by J, and is given as
( )
X
Nr  
2
J ¼ arg max Lj ¼ hij  ð2Þ
1  j  Nt i¼1

The arrangement of random variables Lj are as LðNt Þ      Lð2Þ  Lð1Þ and denoted by
Lv where 1 B v B Nt. The instantaneous post processing SNR of TAS/MRC output can be
given as cNt ¼ cLðNt Þ where c is the average received SNR per channel. In a frequency flat
Nakagami-m fading, the probability density function (pdf) and cumulative density function
(cdf) is given by [5]
 mNr
m 1
cmNr 1 eð c Þ
mc
fc ðcÞ ¼ ð3Þ
c CðmNr Þ
and
 
c mNr ; m cc
Fc ðcÞ ¼ ð4Þ
CðmNr Þ
respectively, where c(a, z) is incomplete gamma function.
The pdf of cNt is given by
 N 1
fcNt ðcÞ ¼ Nt Fc ðcÞ t fc ðcÞ
 mNr mNr 1  
ð5Þ
m c ðmc
c Þ c mN ; m
c Nt 1
¼ Nt e r
c CðmNr ÞNt c
h  iNt 1
In order to obtain the pdf of cNt in simple form, we have to expand c mNr ; m cc in
(5), by using the identity [14, 0.314]
!n
X
1 X
1
k
ak z ¼ ck z k ð6Þ
k¼0 k¼0
Pp
where c0 ¼ an0 ; cp ¼ pa10 k¼1 ðkn  p þ kÞak cpk and c(b, z) is defined as [14, (8.351.2)].

ez zb
cðb; zÞ ¼ ð1; b þ 1; zÞ ð7Þ
b
in which 1F1(m; n; p) is the first kind confluent hypergeometric function [14]

123
2236 S. S. Chauhan, S. Kumar

X1
ðmÞk pk
1 F1 ðm; n; pÞ ¼ ð8Þ
k¼0
ðnÞk k!
h  iNt 1
where ðaÞk ¼ CCðaþk
ðaÞ
Þ
is pochhammer’s symbol [14]. Thus c mNr ; m c
c can be written as
 
 mNr þk
c Nt 1 X 1
c mcðNt 1Þ
c mNr ; m ¼ ck m ef c g ð9Þ
c k¼0

c
 Nt 1 Pp
where c0 ¼ 1
mNr ; cp ¼ CðmNpr þ1Þ kNt p
k¼1 CðmNr þkþ1Þ cpk
Now inserting (9) into (5), the pdf of cNt is given as
X
1  kþ2mNr
Nt m mc
fcNt ðcÞ ¼ Nt c k ckþ2mNr 1 eð c Nt Þ ð10Þ
CðmNr Þ k¼0 c

3 Exact Channel Capacity of TAS/MRC System

In this section, the capacity of TAS/MRC over Nakagami-m MIMO fading channels under
different AT techniques is considered and the exact analytical expressions for the corre-
sponding capacities are evaluated.

3.1 Optimal Rate Allocation with Constant Transmit Power (ora)

In this scheme, the data rate is varied by transmitter according to the channel statistics
while keeping the transmit power constant. The average channel capacity in this scheme
Cora[b/s/Hz] is given by [9–13]
Z1
1
Cora ¼ lnð1 þ cÞfcNt ðcÞdc ð11Þ
ln2
0

Inserting (10) into (11) and utilizing the integral from [8]
Z1
J n ðvÞ ¼ lnð1 þ tÞtn1 evt dt; v [ 0; n ¼ 1; 2. . .
0 ð12Þ
X
n
Cðn þ j; vÞ
¼ ðn  1Þ!ev
j¼1
vj

The capacity Cora can be written as

X
1  kþ2mNr
1 Nt m
Cora ¼ N ck ðk þ 2mNr  1Þ!
ln2 CðmNr Þ k¼0 t c
n o
ð13Þ
X r C ðk þ 2mNr Þ þ j; mN
kþ2mN

c
t

 emNt =c  j
j¼1 mNt
c

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Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-Ratio… 2237

3.2 Optimal Simultaneous Power and Rate Allocation (opra)

In this scheme, the channel statistics must be known at both transmitter and receiver. The
average channel capacity Copra for the scheme is given by [9–13] as
Z1  
c
Copra ¼ log2 fc ðcÞdc ð14Þ
c0 Nt
c0

where c0 is the optimal cutoff SNR below which data transmission is not valid and must
satisfy
Z1 
1 1
 fcNt ðcÞdc ¼ 1 ð15Þ
c0 c
c0

Inserting (10) into (14) and using the result from [8]
Z1
J n ðvÞ ¼ ln ttn1 evt dt; v [ 0; n ¼ 1; 2. . .
1
( ) ð16Þ
ðn  1Þ! X
n1
P k ðvÞ
¼ E1 ðvÞ þ
vn k¼1
k
R1
where E1(.) is the first order exponential integral function E1 ðxÞ ¼ 1 ext =t dt and P k ð:Þ is
P xj
the Poisson sum P k ðxÞ ¼ ex k1 j¼0 j! [14].
The capacity Copra can be written as
X1  kþ2mNr
Nt m 1 ðk þ 2mNr  1Þ!
Copra ¼ Nt c k  kþ2mNr
CðmNr Þ k¼0 c c0 mNt
c
2  3 ð17Þ
  kþ2mN
X r 1 P j
mNt c0
mNt c0 c
 4E1 þ 5
c j¼1
j

To attain an optimal cutoff level c0 in (17), we require calculating for c0 in (15). Now,
R1
inserting (10) into (15) and using the result from [14] Cðn; xÞ ¼ sn1 es ds, the c0 is
x
obtained as
P1 kþ2mNr mN c
Nt c
k¼0 k
ðmcÞ Cfkþ2mNr ; ct 0 g
ÞNt

CðmNr ð c Þ
mNt

c0 ¼ P1 kþ2mNr n o ð18Þ
Nt ck ðmcÞ
1þ k¼0
CðmNr ÞNt
 C k þ 2mNr  1; mNct c0

Thus, we notice that there is a unique c0 which satisfies (18). An asymptotic evaluation
of (18) shows that as c ! 1; c0 ! 1.

123
2238 S. S. Chauhan, S. Kumar

3.3 Channel Inversion with Fixed Rate (cifr)

In this scheme, the transmitter utilizes the channel statistics fed back by the receiver and
modify its power to keep constant SNR at the receiver in order to invert the channel fading.
The average channel capacity Ccifr with this technique is given in [9–13] as
!
1
Ccifr ¼ log2 1 þ R 1 1 ð19Þ
0 c fcNt ðcÞdc

Inserting (10) into (19) and utilizing the integral from [14]
Z1  
m bxn C mþ1n
x e dx ¼ ð20Þ
nbð n Þ
mþ1

The average channel capacity Ccifr can be obtained as

2 3
1
Ccifr ¼ log2 4 P1 ð2k2mNr Þ
5 ð21Þ
m 1
c  CðmN ÞNt
r
k¼0 ck Nt Cðk þ 2mNr  1Þ

The spectral efficiency obtained under cifr technique may further be raised by inverting
the channel only when the deep fade is above a cutoff level c0. This is referred as the
truncated inversion with fixed rate (tifr) technique [9–13]. The average channel capacity
Ctifr with this technique is given by
!
1
Ctifr ¼ log2 1 þ R 1 1 ð1  Pout Þ ð22Þ
c0 c fcNt ðcÞdc

where Pout is the outage probability [15] and can be evaluated as

  
Pout ðc0 Þ ¼ Pr ðC  c0 Þ ¼ Pr log2 1 þ cAðNt Þ  c0
 
2c0  1 ð23Þ
¼ Pr AðNt Þ  ¼ F c ð yÞ
c
c
Let y ¼ 2 0c1. The outage probability can be obtained as
Zy Z1
Pout ðc0 Þ ¼ fcNr ðcÞdc ¼ 1  fcNr ðcÞdc ð24Þ
0 y

Now, inserting (10) into (24) and using [14, (3.381, 3)],
Z1
xj1 eax dx ¼ aj Cðj; avÞ ð25Þ
v
"  
1 X
1
mNt
Pout ¼ 1  ck C k þ 2mNr ; y ð26Þ
CðmNr ÞNt k¼0 c

123
Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-Ratio… 2239

Thus, inserting (26) into (22) and using (25), finally the channel capacity Ctifr can be
evaluated as
2 3
1
Ctifr ¼ log2 41 þ P1  5
c ð2k2mNr Þ mNt
CðmNr ÞNt
c N
k¼0 k t C k þ 2mNr  1; c
c 0
" # ð27Þ
X 1  
1 mNt
 ck C k þ 2mNr ; y
CðmNr ÞNt k¼0 c

4 Numerical Results

This section presents numerical results to illustrate and validate the exact closed-form
average channel capacity of TAS/MRC with AT techniques over Nakagami-m fading
channels.
The average channel capacity per unit bandwidth expression corresponding to Cora
technique as achieved from (13) is illustrated in Fig. 1 for (Nt, 1; Nr) TAS/MRC over
Nakagami-m fading channels with Nr ¼ 1; 2  Nt  3 for different fading parameters,
namely, m = 1 and m = 2. It can be observed that with increasing average received SNR
per channel and the number of transmit antennas, the spectral efficiency increases; how-
ever, it deteriorates as the fading severity increases.
Figures 2 and 3 present the comparison of the plots for ð2; 1; 1Þ and ð2; 1; 2Þ TAS/MRC
schemes in different AT techniques with fading parameter m = 0.8 and m = 1.6 respec-
tively. It can be illustrated that the exceptional capacity can be achieved under opra

7
Average Channel Capacity per unit Bandwidth [bit/sec/Hz]

m=2
5

2
m=1 Nt=2
Nt=3
1

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Average Received SNR per Branch[dB]

Fig. 1 Average capacity per unit bandwidth for a TAS/MRC (Nt, 1; Nr) over Nakagami-
mðm ¼ 1 and m ¼ 2Þ fading channels with Nr = 1, 2 B Nt B 3

123
2240 S. S. Chauhan, S. Kumar

Average Channel Capacity per unit Bandwidth [bit/sec/Hz

7

5
(2,1:1)

3
cifr
tifr
ora
2
opra

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Average Received SNR per Branch[dB]

Fig. 2 Average capacity per unit bandwidth for a TAS/MRC (Nt, 1; Nr) over Nakagami-mðm ¼ 0:8Þ fading
channels with Nr ¼ 1 and Nt ¼ 2

scheme for any average received SNR per branch, as expected, since both the transmit
power and data rates adapts at the source according to the channel fading statistics. It can
be noticed that for high c values, the ora technique (13) realizes almost the same spectral
efficiency as the opra technique (17) when none power allocation at the transmitter side. It
can also be remarked that for any number of antennas and/or fading parameters, cifr
technique (21) experience the utmost capacity lost compare to the other techniques as large
amount of transmit power is required to compensate the fade depth. However, it is simpler
technique to implement, as it uses fixed coding and modulation. The spectral efficiency
achieved under cifr scheme can be further increases by using truncated version of cifr,
called tifr scheme whereby a cutoff level is used to maximize the spectral efficiency at the
penalty of an increased outage probability.
In Fig. 4, we compare the outage probabilities achieved under opra and tifr adaptive-
transmission schemes with Nr = 2 and various numbers of transmit antennas
½ðaÞNt ¼ 1; ðbÞNt ¼ 2 and ðcÞNt ¼ 4. This illustrates that the decrease in outage proba-
bility with increase in average received SNR per branch is slower for tifr than for opra. The
opra sustain an outage probability, which is always smaller than the outage probability
deteriorated by the tifr scheme for the same number of antenna since data transmission is
not valid when the c falls below the particular cutoff value.

5 Conclusions

The upper-bound on spectral efficiency of TAS/MRC system over Nakagami-m fading

channels have been analyzed. We evaluate the exact closed-form expressions for the
channel capacity of TAS/MRC under various AT techniques: the opra technique, the ora

123
Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-Ratio… 2241

Average Channel Capacity per unit Bandwidth [bit/sec/Hz]

7

(2,1:2)
5

3
cifr
tifr

2 ora
opra

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Average Received SNR per Branch[dB]

Fig. 3 Average capacity per unit bandwidth for a TAS/MRC (Nt, 1; Nr) over Nakagami-mðm ¼ 1:6Þ fading
channels with Nr ¼ 2 and Nt ¼ 2

0
10
tifr
(a)
opra
10
-1 (b)

-2 (c)
10
Probability of outage

10
-3 (a)

-4
10

-5
10

-6 (b)
10

-7 (c)
10

-8
10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Average recieved SNR per branch (dB)

Fig. 4 Outage probability for opra and tifr scheme verses average received SNR per branch with Nr = 2
for a Nt = 1, b Nt ¼ 2 and c Nt = 4

123
2242 S. S. Chauhan, S. Kumar

technique and the cifr technique. Our outcomes depict that opra enrich a slight capacity
growth, as both transmit power and rate adapts at the source and ora technique obtained
almost the same capacity as the opra policy, mainly for high c values. For any number of
antennas and/or fading parameters cifr technique has lowest capacity and can further be
raised by using a tifr technique where a particular cutoff level is chosen to enhance the
channel capacity. Hence, it can be concluded that by increasing the average received SNR
per branch, fading parameter m and the diversity gain, the channel capacity of the system
increases.

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Adaptive-Transmission Channel Capacity of Maximal-Ratio… 2243

Sudakar Singh Chauhan is presently working as an Assistant Pro-

fessor in the department of Electronics and Communications Engi-
neering at NIT Kurukshetra, Haryana, India. He received B. Tech.
degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from HNB
Garhwal University, Uttarakhand, India in 2005, M. Tech. degree from
NIT Hamirpur, Himanchal Pradesh, India in 2009 and Ph.D. (sub-
mitted-2015) in Electronics & Communication department at BIT,
Mesra, Ranchi, India. From 2008 to 2009, he was a project fellow at
Central Electronics Engineering & Research Institute, Pilani, India. In
2009, he joined Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited as a switch engineer in
Digital Trunk Automatic Exchange at Rajkot, Gujrat. His current
research interests include in the area of multiple-antenna systems
(MIMO), and information theory for multiple input-multiple output
systems.

Sanjay Kumar is presently working as an Associate Professor in the

department of Electronics and Communications Engineering at Birla
Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, India. He received MBA from
Pune University, India in 1994 and M. Tech. in Electronics and
Communication Engineering from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering
College, Ludhiana, India in 2000. He was a guest researcher at Aalborg
University, Denmark during 2006–2009, where he obtained Ph.D. in
Wireless Communication. During his Ph.D. he worked in close
cooperation with Nokia Siemens Networks and Centre for
TeleInFrastruktur (CTIF). He was also a guest lecturer in the depart-
ment of Electronics Systems at Aalborg University, Denmark during
2007–2009. He served the Indian Air Force from 1985 to 2000 in
various technical capacities. He has been closely associated with
organization and reviewing processes for several national and inter-
national conferences and workshops. His research interest is in the
field of wireless communication.

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