Performance of uplink and downlink MC-CDMA equalizers in frequency selective Nakagami fading channels

The average bit error rate (BER) performance of the uplink and downlink of a multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system using coherent maximal-ratio combining (MRC) and equal gain combining (EGC) receivers for a frequency selective Nakagami fading channel are studied. The analysis assumes that different subcarriers experience independent fading channels, but not necessary identically distributed. Generalized BER expressions for both uplink and downlink with MRC and EGC receivers are derived. From the derived results, however, the performance of EGC is found to outperform MRC in the downlink. On the other hand, MRC for the uplink is found to be the optimal compared with EGC.