Performance analysis of maximal ratio combiner in correlated rayleigh fading

In this contribution, we investigate the impact of channel correlation on the ergodic capacity, capacity statistics and symbol error rate (SER) for maximal ratio combiner (MRC) multichannel diversity systems over correlated Rayleigh fading channels. We derive exact closed-form expressions for average channel capacity, an upper bound and its asymptotically tight approximation. The capacity statistics moment generating function (MGF), complementary cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) derived are valid for arbitrary number of receive antennas. Furthermore, we derive an exact closed expression for general M-PSK modulation. Correlation among channels degrades the system performance as expected.