New Bounds of Pairwise Error Probability for Space-Time Codes in Rayleigh Fading Channels

In this paper, we present new upper and lower bounds of the pairwise error probabilities (PEPs) for space-time codes over Rayleigh channels with independent fading. In support of this, we derive a new expression of the PEP using an alternative form of the Gaussian tail function, which is very simple and descriptive. The new bounds are very accurate, and suitable for easy estimation and application to the performance analysis based on distance spectrum. According to numerical examples, they turn out to be much closer to the exact PEP than other existing bounds. In addition, they help to envision the behavior of the space-time codes for the cases of more than one receive antennas.