Performance of convolutional codes with finite-depth interleaving and noisy channel estimates

In this paper, we derive the Chernoff bound of the pairwise error probability (PEP) and the exact PEP of convolutional codes in a time-varying Rician fading channel. With the assumptions that the channel estimator is a finite impulse response filter and the interleaving depth is finite, we are able to investigate the estimation-diversity tradeoff resulting from the effects of the Doppler spread on the system performance via the channel-estimation accuracy and the channel diversity. In addition, we verify that, in the special case when the pilot signal-to-noise ratio is infinitely large and the channel estimator is well-designed, our analysis leads to the same result as the existing perfect channel-state information analysis. Finally, the analytical results are compared with results from Monte Carlo simulation, and the comparison shows that the analytical results match well with the simulation results