Closed-form expressions for symbol error probability of orthogonal space-time block codes over Rician-Nakagami channels

The performances of orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) over Rician- Nakagami channels are investigated. In particular, we derive closed-form symbol error probability (SEP) expressions for OSTBC systems in which M-ary phase-shift-keying modulation and M-ary quadrature-amplitude modulation are used. These SEP results are expressed in terms of Lauricella´s multivariate hypergeometric functions, which can be easily evaluated numerically. When the Rician-Nakagami channel degenerates to the Rician-Rayleigh channel, or equivalently the Rayleigh fading channel, the closed-form SEP expressions are rewritten in terms of higher transcendental functions, that is, Gauss hypergeometric function and Appell hypergeometric function.