Performance Analysis of Variable Code Rate Signals Transmitted over Frequency-Nonselective, Slowly Fading Channels in a Pulse- Interference Environment

Wireless systems, including wireless local area networks (WLAN) and cellular networks, are increasingly being used for both commercial and military applications. For military applications, it is important to analyze the effect of interference on wireless communications systems. The objective of this research is to investigate the performance of variable code rate signals transmitted over frequency-nonselective, slowly fading channels in a worst case, pulse-noise interference environment. Both binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) and noncoherently detected binary frequency-shift keying (NCBFSK) are considered. System performance with both Viterbi hard decision decoding (HDD) and soft decision decoding (SDD) is analyzed for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) alone and for AWGN plus pulse-noise interference for various receiver types and conditions of channel fading. The effect of varying the code rate, both for HDD and SDD, is examined. The amplitude of the signal power 2 c a is modeled as a random variable, and the channel is modeled as either Rayleigh fading or Ricean fading, depending on the modulation under consideration.