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With the progress of communication technology, the increasing wireless devices are hooked up the networks, and the consequent security problems cannot be ignored. At present, the solutions mainly include secret key system and physical layer security (PLS). However, secret key system that relies on highly complex algorithms for encryption and decryption still has the risk of being cracked by powerful computers. In this paper, the PLS of Beaulieu‐Xie fading channels is studied. To improve the transmission quality and support higher speed data transmission, the single‐input multiple‐out (SIMO) system considered is the Wyner eavesdropper model with decoding and forwarding (DF) relay over Beaulieu‐Xie fading. The closed‐form theoretical formulas for secure outage probability (SOP) and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) are obtained by complex unified functional representation, which includes two cases: LRD≤LRE${L_{RD}} \le {L_{RE}}$ and LRD>LRE${L_{RD}} > {L_{RE}}$. Moreover, the theoretical formulas are verified by Monte Carlo results. By comparing the simulation results with the theoretical analysis, the authors discussed the factors to improve the secure performance. Experiments show that the larger ratio of (λRD,λRE)$({{\lambda _{RD}},{\lambda _{RE}}})$, the smaller ratio of (mRD,mRE)$({{m_{RD}},{m_{RE}}})$, smaller signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) of eavesdropping channels, smaller threshold Cth${C_{th}}$ and more legitimate antennas LRD${L_{RD}}$ are beneficial to the improvement of anti‐interference capability for the relay networks with Beaulieu‐Xie distributions when the legal channel link R→D is in a state of high SNR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new construction of generalized root protograph (GRP) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes which has a guaranteed diversity order. New hybrid-automatic request with incremental redundancy (H-ARQ-IR) is also proposed to ensure high diversity and rate-compatibility in wireless communication systems, where the GRP LDPC codes are employed along with a method called feedback encoding. The proposed H-ARQ-IR has advantages of low-complexity and near-optimal performance. In order to show its performance behavior, theoretical analysis for the proposed scheme is conducted for the block fading channel. Furthermore, numerical analysis shows that it achieves near maximum diversity order under the belief propagation (BP) decoding with binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation and high-order quadrature amplitude modulations (QAMs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmit antenna selection (TAS) is an emerging technology in physical layer security. To provide new insights into the achievable secrecy performance of TAS in practical communication systems, this paper investigates the average secrecy rate (ASR) and secrecy outage probability (SOP) under practical modulation schemes in TAS aided multiple-input multiple-output multiple-antenna eavesdropper (MIMOME) wiretap channels over Rayleigh fading. Particularly, this research concentrates more on the square $M$ -ary quadrature amplitude modulation ($M$ -QAM). Furthermore, in the considered MIMOME channel, a single antenna is selected to transmit the secret message, and selection combining (SC) or maximal-ratio combining (MRC) is utilized at the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper. Based on this system model, novel expressions for the ASR and SOP are formulated to characterize the secrecy performance of the finite-alphabet driven MIMOME channel. Besides exact analysis, an asymptotic analysis is performed using the considered performance metrics in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Theoretical analyses suggest that the asymptotic ASR and SOP converge to finite constants in high SNR regime due to the discrete constellation constraint, and we find that the asymptotic behaviour of discrete inputs differs from that of Gaussian inputs. Furthermore, we derive concise expressions to characterize the rate of convergence (ROC) of the ASR and SOP, respectively. To unveil more system design insights, we discuss the relationship between the ROC and several important system parameters such as the antenna number and the modulation order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the problem of downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) over slow fading channels is studied. Full-channel state information (CSI) is assumed at the receivers, while only the statistical CSI is assumed to be available at the transmitter. A novel lattice-partition-based scheme is proposed which, according to statistical CSI, employs discrete inputs from appropriately designed constellations carved from a lattice, rather than continuous Gaussian inputs as used in most existing works. Theoretical analysis shows that for any outage probability smaller than 63.21%, which covers almost all the cases of practical interest, the proposed scheme with single-user decoding, i.e., without successive interference cancellation (SIC) is able to approach the NOMA outage capacity region within a constant gap, independent of the signal-to-noise ratio, and the number of users. Simulation results fortify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by showing that the approach without SIC can achieve outage rates that are very close to the outage capacity region and the gap becomes even smaller when SIC is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) assisted unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) networks. By utilizing a stochastic geometry model, a new 3-D UAV framework for providing wireless service to randomly roaming NOMA users has been proposed. In an effort to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework, we derive analytical expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic rate of MIMO-NOMA enhanced UAV networks. We examine tractable upper bounds for the whole proposed framework, with deriving asymptotic results for scenarios that transmit power of interference sources being proportional or being fixed to the UAV. For obtaining more insights for the proposed framework, we investigate the diversity order and high signal-to-noise slope of MIMO-NOMA assisted UAV networks. Our results confirm that: 1) Outage probability of NOMA enhanced UAV networks is affected to a large extent by the targeted transmission rates and power allocation factors of NOMA users and 2) For the case that the interference power is proportional to the UAV power, there are error floors for the outage probabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link adaptation (LA) schemes maximize average spectral efficiency (ASE) using accurate channel state information (CSI) and knowledge of signal to noise ratio (SNR) distribution. In practical systems, partial CSI is available at the transmitter through feedback of modulation and coding scheme index, often known as channel quality indicator (CQI). However, parameters of SNR distribution (${\Theta }$) are not known or only assumed to be known. We propose two LA schemes, for execution at the receiver and transmitter, respectively, each without prior knowledge about ${\Theta }$. In the receiver centric schemes, parametric estimation of SNR distribution is performed using unquantized SNR samples. In the transmitter centric scheme, we estimate ${\Theta }$ from CQI samples using an iterative joint quantization-estimation algorithm. These parametric estimates form long-term SNR distribution, which is used to compute SNR switching thresholds. Using these thresholds, rate and power adaptation decisions are made based on instantaneous SNR. We have derived the maximum-likelihood estimator and Cramer–Rao lower bound for the proposed estimator using CQI feedback for Nakagami- $m$ fading channels and demonstrate that near optimal ASE can be achieved while using the proposed schemes as in an ideal scenario, where perfect knowledge about CSI and SNR distribution are available a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-connectivity (MCo) is considered to be a key strategy for enabling reliable transmissions and enhanced data rates in fifth-generation mobile networks, as it provides multiple links from source to destination. In this paper, we quantify the communication performance of MCo in terms of outage probability and throughput. For doing so, we establish a simple, yet accurate analytical framework at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in which the number of links, the spectral efficiency, the path loss, and the SNR are incorporated, giving new insights into the potentials of MCo as compared with the single-connectivity (SCo). These are our main contributions: 1) finding the exact coding gain of the outage probability for parallel block-fading channels; 2) quantifying the performance improvement of MCo over SCo in terms of SNR gain; and 3) comparing optimal and suboptimal combining algorithms for MCo at the receiver side, namely joint decoding, selection combining, and maximal-ratio combining, also in terms of SNR gain. In addition, we apply our analytical framework to real field channel measurements and thereby illustrate the potential of MCo to achieve high reliability and high data rates in real cellular networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antenna selection (AS) techniques are considered as ideal candidates for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, since they improve system's performance and simultaneously satisfy the hardware and signal processing constraints that exist in these systems. However, the achieved gain over single antenna links is affected by the fast varying wireless channel, since AS is frequently performed using outdated versions of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this paper, we propose an AS technique that exploits the stationarity of large-scale fading. In this context, by employing shadowing information as an AS criterion, the negative consequences of the outdated channel state information (CSI) can be alleviated, since large-scale fading varies more slowly than small-scale fading. The performance of the proposed technique is analyzed using the criteria of outage probability and average output SNR. It is shown that the proposed scheme outperforms the corresponding one that is based on outdated CSI, especially in scenarios with mild fading/shadowing channel conditions. Moreover, the influence of correlated shadowing on the system's performance has been also analytically investigated. The main results have been also verified by empirical data based on measurement campaigns in non-stationary communication conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The network densification brings favored channel gain. However, its performance is limited by the increased interference and feedback overhead. In this paper, we focus on the channel state information (CSI) measure error induced by feedback delay and study the effect of the uplink feedback on the downlink transmission performance in ultra-dense networks (UDNs). Using a mobility-aware sparse feedback scheme (MSFS), we analyze the feedback transmission delay and feedback waiting delay separately, considering the impact of CSI feedback probability and measurement range. To capture the effect of proposed MSFS, the coverage probability for a typical mobile user is derived, where the imperfect-CSI-based zero-forcing precoding is employed to mitigate the severe inter-cell interference in UDNs. Numerical results reveal that MSFS succeeds in providing the effective CSI for downlink precoding while keeping a lower feedback load, and the optimal feedback probability and measurement range are provided for diverse mobility cases and different network densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the physical-layer security of the modify-and-forward (MF) protocol in multi-relay and multi-eavesdropper networks. Three relay selection critera are developed according to the channel state information (CSI) acquisition. Criterion I requires the CSI of all main channels for relay selection. Criteria II and III rely only on the CSI of the source-relay and relay-destination channels, respectively. We derive the exact secrecy outage probability (SOP), probability of nonzero secrecy capacity, and the ergodic secrecy rate in the closed forms. The $\epsilon$ -outage secrecy capacity is also evaluated. Asymptotic analysis of the SOP explicitly reveals that the secrecy diversity order of criterion I depends on the total number of relays, whereas those of criteria II and III are 2 and 1, respectively. The probability of nonzero secrecy capacity asymptotically decreases with the SNR of the wiretap channel as the eavesdropper is close to the source and relays. Criterion I is always superior to criteria II and III in terms of the ergodic secrecy rate and $\epsilon$ -outage secrecy capacity. Simulations results also demonstrated that the $\epsilon$ -outage secrecy capacity deteriorates as the SNR of the eavesdropper's channel increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the performance of secure cellular multiuser two-way amplify-and-forward relay networks, wherein one $N_{a}$ -antenna base station (BS) exchanges information bidirectionally with $K$ single-antenna users (USs) by the assistance of a single-antenna relay node in the presence of a single-antenna passive eavesdropper. We employ user selection coupled with antenna selection (AS) scheme at the BS so as to maximize the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratios. In the considered system, by employing two possible combining techniques at the eavesdropper, viz., maximum ratio combining (MRC) and selection combining (SC), we derive the novel tight closed-form expressions for the secrecy outage probability (SOP) under Rayleigh fading channels. We present an asymptotic secrecy diversity order analysis of the considered system for the large transmit power, and demonstrate that the eavesdropping reduces the secrecy diversity order from $\min (N_{a},K)$ to 1. Further, we present some useful insights into the impact of eavesdropper and number of antennas and users on the SOP performance. It is shown that the eavesdropper has a severe impact on the SOP performance, regardless of number of antennas and users. The numerical and simulation results corroborate our theoretical findings, and demonstrate the influence of eavesdropper and relay positions on the SOP performance. We show that the SOP performance improves significantly when the eavesdropper is far away from the BS and USs. It is also shown that the SOP performance enhances noticeably if the relay location is chosen optimally, for different eavesdropper positions and/or different values of antennas and users. Moreover, our results also reveal that only coding gain rather than diversity gain is achieved by increasing $N_{a}$ and $K$ , because of the dominance of information leakage by the first time phase. Furthermore, results illustrate that the SOP performance under SC technique employed at the eavesdropper outperforms the MRC-based technique for the broad range of transmit power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel framework for analyzing and optimizing the outage performance of a multiple amplify-and-forward relay network, where $N$ relays, each with finite cache capacity, are deployed to assist the transmission from a base station equipped with $L$ antennas to the destination. In this network, if the requested file is cached at the relays and the associated relay channels are in good condition, then the data are directly transmitted from the relays to the destination; otherwise, traditional two-hop transmission is performed. Based on this concept, we propose a relay-selection criterion to choose the best relay, which maximizes the received signal-to-noise ratio at the destination. For this criterion, we derive exact and asymptotic analytical expressions for the system outage probability in Nakagami- $m$ fading. To further improve the network outage performance, we optimize the cache placement, which minimizes the outage probability. Numerical and simulation experiments are performed to validate the analysis and demonstrate the conditions where the proposed cache placement strategy outperforms the existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a sequel of our previous work on characterization of maximum sum rate of slotted Aloha networks. By extending the analysis to incorporate the capacity-achieving receiver structure, successive interference cancellation (SIC), this paper aims to identify the rate loss due to random access. Specifically, two representative SIC receivers are considered, i.e., ordered SIC, where packets are decoded in a descending order of their received power, and unordered SIC, where packets are decoded in a random order. The maximum sum rate and the corresponding optimal parameter setting including the transmission probability and the information encoding rate in both cases are obtained as the functions of the mean received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The comparison to the capture model shows that the gains are significant only with the ordered SIC at moderate values of the mean received SNR $\rho $. With a large $\rho $ , the rate gap diminishes, and they all have the same high-SNR slope of $e^{-1}$ , which is far below that of the ergodic sum capacity of fading channels. The effect of multipacket reception (MPR) on the sum rate performance is also studied by comparing the MPR receivers including SIC and the capture model to the classical collision model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hybrid digital-analog (HDA) systems, resource allocation has been utilized to achieve the desired distortion performance. However, existing studies on this issue assume error-free digital transmission, which is not valid for fading channels. With time-varying channel fading, the exact channel state information is not available at the transmitter. Thus, random outage and resulting digital distortion cannot be ignored. Moreover, rate allocation should be considered in resource allocation, since it not only determines the amount of information for digital transmission and that for analog transmission but also affects the outage probability. Based on above-mentioned observations, in this paper, we attempt to perform joint rate and resource allocation strategies to optimize system distortion in HDA systems over fading channels. Consider a bandwidth expansion scenario where a memoryless Gaussian source is transmitted in an HDA system with the entropy-constrained scalar quantizer. First, we formulate the joint allocation problem as an expected system distortion minimization problem where both analog and digital distortions are considered. Then, in the limit of low outage probability, we decompose the problem into two coupled subproblems based on the block coordinate descent method and propose an iterative gradient algorithm to approach the optimal solution. Furthermore, we extend our work to the multivariate Gaussian source scenario where a two-stage fast algorithm integrating rounding and greedy strategies is proposed to optimize the joint rate and resource allocation problem. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve up to 2.3 dB gains in terms of the signal-to-distortion ratio over existing schemes under the single Gaussian source scenario, and up to 3.5 dB gains under the multivariate Gaussian source scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a well-known wire-tap model, novel wireless secrecy analyses under dual correlated Nakagami- $m$ fading with a real fading parameter $m$ are reported. Infinite summations for incomplete gamma functions are employed to derive compact expressions for secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability (SOP) under noninteger $m$. Independently, using finite summations, corresponding closed-form findings for integer $m$ are also derived. In the current literature, finite summations for the incomplete gamma functions, whose first arguments and hence $m$ must be an integer, are employed to obtain closed-form expressions for, first, the SOP (with an unknown passive wire-tapper's channel state information), and second, ergodic secrecy capacity (with partially known active wire-tapper's channel state information under slow fading). The new secrecy results for noninteger $m$ generalize the proposed findings for integer $m$ , and existing findings under dual correlated Rayleigh fading for $m=1$. The new findings can thus be comprehensively employed for wireless secrecy computation under dual correlated Nakagami- $m$ fading for real $m$. Infinite-summation convergence and cross verification are also obtained for a finite number of terms, which shows the practicality and consistency of the new findings. For the first time, secrecy analyses employing an adaptive encoder with on/off transmission are performed under dual correlated Nakagami- $m$ fading for real $m$ to not only improve wireless secrecy, but also achieve the eventual successful transmission from a source to a destination. The new SOP results for real $m$ can be employed as lower bounds and complete theoretical secrecy analyses, for SOP under dual correlated Nakagami- $m$ fading with integer $m$. Simulation results are employed to show matching between the proposed findings and existing findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this correspondence paper, we present novel results related to the error performance of coherent systems in the presence of the imperfect carrier phase estimation over Gamma shadowed Nakagami- $m$ fading environment. Taking the Tikhonov-distributed phase error process into account, binary and quaternary phase-shift keying signal detection is analyzed. Based on the Maclaurin series expansion of the complementary error function, approximated closed-form expressions for the bit error rate (BER) are derived. These expressions are simplified to those already reported in literature, which are valid in the case without shadowing. The asymptotic closed-form expressions for noisy reference loss are also presented. We examine the effect of phase-locked loop parameters on both BER and noisy reference loss. Analytical results are validated by independent Monte Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incremental relaying is a spectral-efficient relaying approach which introduces itself as one of the possible solutions to the spectrum scarcity problem for future generations of cellular communications systems. In this paper, we study threshold amplify-and-forward incremental relaying for correlated fading channels, i.e., fading channels for which the channel gain amplitude varies during the time interval of a block transmission; however, the variation occurs in a correlating fashion. From this aspect, these channels are different from both block-fading and fast-fading channels. Due to the correlating nature of the channels, it is possible to compress channel state information (CSI) sequences and employ the compressed CSI sequences as side information to carefully select the bits transmitted by the relay. This idea is already employed in previous works to increase the spectral efficiency; however, those works consider block-fading channels and also assume maximal ratio combining (MRC) at receiver. In case of MRC, explicit expressions for the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exist, which enable packet error rate analysis by aid of Moment Generating Functions of the SNR. However, to apply MRC, the receiver requires all channel gains (including source-relay channel gain). In case of correlated channels, communicating all real-valued channel gains, requires a large overhead. This fact renders applicability of MRC for correlated channels. We apply the more practical Equal-Gain Combining method. We derive series approximations for symbol error rate, given M-QAM and MPSK modulations, and assuming Nakagami- $m$ fading channels. We also analyze the spectral efficiency by assuming Markov models for the channels. We compare the spectral efficiency in case of correlated and fast-fading channels and show that, unlike fast-fading channels, correlated fading channels allow for a spectrally efficient scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multicarrier wireless communication systems, which usually operate over frequency-selective fading channels, are practically also impaired by environmental impulsive noise. In order to boost the signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) at the receiver, this paper proposes and analyzes nonlinear estimators based on the multiple thresholding, with associated piecewise attenuation, or clipping, of the received signal amplitude. The proposed approach exploits a new heuristic criterion to set the thresholds. Although the obtained thresholds are slightly suboptimal in output SNR, the proposed approach has the nice and useful property to allow closed-form analytical derivations for both the threshold(s) and the associated attenuating/clipping parameters, when a Gaussian source is impaired by an impulsive noise. Such a quite general class of estimators, which could be applied also in other scenarios, is particularly attractive for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication systems in the presence of additive multicomponent impulsive noise. We are also letting to derive closed-form expressions for the output SNR in frequency-selective multipath fading channels. The SNR performance and the associated symbol error rate have been compared with those of more traditional blanking, clipping, and clipping-blanking processors. Specifically, analytical and simulation results, carried out for Class-A and symmetrical alpha-stable (SαS) impulsive noise, show that the proposed threshold-based suppressors are superior to the traditional ones. Furthermore, as the number of thresholds increases, the proposed estimators closely approach the performance of the optimal minimum mean square error Bayesian estimator. However, as it is shown, in practical conditions only few thresholds are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the performance of a downlink non-orthogonal multiple access-based cooperative relay system with a single relay over Nakagami- $m$ fading channels, where both decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) protocols are considered. We assume that only statistical channel state information is available to the system and used to determine the decoding order of cell-edge users’ data. For DF relaying, both ergodic sum rate and outage probability are solved in closed form. For AF relaying, closed-form asymptotic ergodic sum rate and outage probability are provided. Numerical results verify the accuracy of the analysis and demonstrate that the DF protocol significantly outperforms the AF one in terms of ergodic sum rate even the channel’s near–far effect weakens. In addition, the DF protocol exhibits better outage performance than the AF one at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), though the superiority becomes negligible with the increasing SNR. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper quantifies the impact of correlated fading on secure communication of multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks. In such a network, the base station (BS) is equipped with multiple antennas and communicates with the destination through multiple AF relays, while the message from the relays can be overheard by an eavesdropper. We focus on the practical communication scenario, where the main and eavesdropper’s channels are correlated. In order to enhance the transmission security, transmit antenna selection is performed at the BS, and the best relay is chosen according to the full- or partial-relay selection criterion, which relies on the dual-hop relay channels or the second-hop relay channels, respectively. For these criteria, we study the impact of correlated fading on the network secrecy performance, by deriving an analytical approximation for the secrecy outage probability and an asymptotic expression for the high main-to-eavesdropper ratio. From these results, it is concluded that the channel correlation is always beneficial to the secrecy performance of full relay selection. However, it deteriorates the secrecy performance if partial-relay selection is used, when the number of antennas at the BS is less than the number of relays. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The outage probability (OP) of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is an important metric that is used to evaluate the performance of wireless systems. One difficulty toward assessing the OP is that, in realistic scenarios, closed-form expressions cannot be derived. This is, for instance, the case of the Log-normal environment, in which evaluating the OP of the SINR amounts to computing the probability that a sum of correlated Log-normal variates exceeds a given threshold. Since such a probability does not admit a closed-form expression, it has thus far been evaluated by several approximation techniques, the accuracies of which are not guaranteed in the region of small OPs. For these regions, simulation techniques based on variance reduction algorithms are a good alternative, being quick and highly accurate for estimating rare event probabilities. This constitutes the major motivation behind this paper. More specifically, we propose a generalized hybrid importance sampling scheme, based on a combination of a mean shifting and a covariance matrix scaling, to evaluate the OP of the SINR in a Log-normal environment. We further our analysis by providing a detailed study of two particular cases. Finally, the performance of these techniques is performed both theoretically and through various simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A low-complexity precoding scheme and semiblind channel estimation method are proposed for amplify-and-forward two-way relay networks with multiple relays and frequency-selective fading channels. In the proposed approach, precoding is performed using a rotation-based matrix and the composite channel impulse response of each source-relay-destination link is estimated based on the second-order statistics of the received signals. The ambiguity in the proposed channel estimates caused by the channel information of the direct link is eliminated using a small number of training blocks. The accuracy of the proposed semiblind channel estimates is examined by deriving the mean square error of the channel estimates for two asymptotic cases, namely an infinite number of data blocks and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. The two cases, thus, provide a useful insight into the effects on the estimation performance of imperfect direct link information and statistical errors of the ensemble correlations, respectively. The asymptotic analyses are confirmed by the simulation results, which show that the normalized mean square error of the channel estimates varies inversely with the SNR and the number of data blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the question of achieving capacity with lattice codes in multi-antenna block fading channels when the number of fading blocks tends to infinity. A design criterion based on the normalized minimum determinant is proposed for division algebra multi-block space-time codes over fading channels; this plays a similar role to the Hermite invariant for Gaussian channels. Under maximum likelihood decoding, it is shown that this criterion is sufficient to guarantee transmission rates within a constant gap from capacity both for deterministic channels and ergodic fading channels. Moreover, if the number of receive antennas is greater than or equal to the number of transmit antennas, the same constant gap is achieved under naive lattice decoding as well. In the case of independent identically distributed Rayleigh fading, the error probability vanishes exponentially fast. In contrast to the standard approach in the literature, which employs random lattice ensembles, the existence results in this paper are derived from the number theory. First, the gap to capacity is shown to depend on the discriminant of the chosen division algebra; then, class field theory is applied to build families of algebras with small discriminants. The key element in the construction is the choice of a sequence of division algebras whose centers are number fields with small root discriminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a large class of bidirectional relaying scenarios with physical layer network coding, and analytically characterize the relay's error performance in decoding the network-coded combination at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Our analysis applies to scenarios with 1) binary or higher order real/complex modulation, 2) real or complex channel coefficients, and 3) linear or non-linear network maps for network coding at the relay. We consider block fading and allow the relay to choose from a set of network maps based on the channel coefficients of the source to relay links in every block. We derive expressions for pairwise error probability and approximate expected overall error probability. We also derive lower bounds for these error probabilities. We validate these expressions using simulations and show that our approximations are tight in the high SNR regime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The performance of $L$- branch scan-and-wait combining (SWC) reception systems over arbitrarily correlated and not necessarily identically distributed Nakagami- $m$ fading channels is analyzed and evaluated. First, a fast convergent infinite series representation for the SWC output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is presented. This expression is used to obtain analytical expressions in the form of infinite series for the average error probability performance of various modulation schemes for integer values of $m$ as well as the average number of paths estimation and the average waiting time (AWT) of $L$-branch SWC receivers for arbitrary values of $m$. The numerically obtained results have shown that the performance expressions converge very fast to their exact analytical values. It was found that the convergence speed depends on the correlation and operating SNR values as well as the Nakagami $m$- parameter. In addition to the analytical results, complementary computer simulated performance evaluation results have been obtained by means of Monte Carlo error counting techniques. The match between these two sets of results has verified the accuracy of the proposed mathematical analysis. Furthermore, it is revealed that, at the expense of a negligible AWT, the average error probability performance of SWC receivers is always superior to that of switch-and-examine combining receivers and, in certain cases, to that of maximal-ratio combining receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA), which can improve the spectrum efficiency and system throughput compared with conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA), has been regarded as a promising technique for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication network. In this paper, we consider a NOMA-based relaying networks over Nakagami-$m$ fading channels, where the base station communicates with multiple mobile users simultaneously through the help of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay. First, we study the system outage behavior, and closed-form expressions for the exact outage probability and simple bounds of the outage probability are obtained, respectively. The analytical results are further evaluated in the high-signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) regime to explicitly characterize the diversity order of the network. Next, the ergodic sum rate achieved by the network is investigated, and expressions for the lower and upper bounds of the ergodic sum rate are derived. Finally, numerical examples are conducted to confirm the validity of our analysis and show a comparison of NOMA against conventional OMA networks. NOMA is reported to outperform conventional OMA and provide better spectral efficiency and user fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the performance of a nonregenerative relaying network of multiple-antenna terminal nodes is analyzed with respect to the power allocation issue. Assuming that complete channel state information (CSI) of all links is known at the destination terminal, an optimal power allocation (OPA) approach is investigated subject to constant total power with the objective of maximizing the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the destination. Generally, by this OPA approach, the total available power in the system is appropriated to source and relay nodes proportional to channel properties with the aim of coordinating the source–relay and relay–destination hop quality. Closed-form expressions for the outage probability are analytically derived, considering both conventional and maximized SNRs. It is shown that OPA outperforms the conventional uniform power allocation, although the achieved improvement is more significant if the number of destination antennas is less than the number of source antennas. Moreover, the results indicate that the effect of OPA on the performance improvement is significant if the relay node is close to the source terminal. Moreover, it is seen that the minimum number of the source and destination antennas is a determinant parameter in the evaluation of the outage probability. Hence, it is demonstrated that for an efficient system design, the number of source antennas should be as close as possible to that of the destination antennas. In addition, the relay selection scheme is considered to further improve the performance of the system. Finally, simulation results are presented, which confirms the validity of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we investigate the achievable coverage and the information rate of an aerial base station. The air-to-ground link is analysed by considering random fading and shadowing effects impairing the wireless transmission, together with a homogeneous spatial distribution of the terrestrial users. The distribution of the buildings in the underlying coverage region is modeled using the International Telecommunication Union-Recommendation statistical city model. For a given urban environment/region, we analytically quantify the achievable coverage probability and the information rate of users on the ground at a particular base station altitude. Furthermore, we analytically find the optimal altitude of the aerial base station to maximise the terrestrial coverage given a certain service region. Simulations are conducted to verify our analysis, and a close match between the analytical and simulation results is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Uniform Constellations (NUC) have been introduced in ATSC 3.0 (Advanced Television Systems Committee - Third Generation) as one of the main novelties to improve the performance compared to uniform Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) constellations. NUCs are optimized by means of signal geometrical shaping, considering the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the channel model. ATSC 3.0 implements two types of NUC, depending on the number of real-valued dimensions in which they are optimized: 1D-NUC and 2D-NUC. However, the gain of NUCs becomes almost non-existent at high SNRs, especially when optimizing for fading channels. In that particular case, Rotated Constellations (RC) can be used to further improve the overall system performance. RCs may become especially effective when using multi-radio frequency (multi-RF) SNR averaging techniques such as Channel Bonding (CB) or Time-Frequency Slicing (TFS), where in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components are transmitted in different RF channels. 2D-NUCs can be rotated without increasing the demapping complexity, since a 2D-demapper is also needed. In this paper, we propose an optimization method designed for rotated 2D-NUCs, in which the rotation angle is considered as an additional variable, together with the symbol positions. The SNR gain obtained in fading channels is also provided for three different use cases: single-RF transmissions, CB with 2 RF channels as adopted in ATSC 3.0, and extension of multi-RF techniques to 4 RF channels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the impact of statistical delay constraints on the achievable rate of a two-hop wireless communication link in which the communication between a source and a destination is accomplished via a buffer-aided relay node. It is assumed that there is no direct link between the source and the destination, and the buffer-aided relay forwards the information to the destination by employing the decode-and-forward scheme. Given statistical delay constraints specified via maximum delay and delay violation probability, the tradeoff between the statistical delay constraints imposed on any two concatenated queues is identified. With this characterization, the maximum constant arrival rates that can be supported by this two-hop link are obtained by determining the effective capacity of such links as a function of the statistical delay constraints, signal-to-noise ratios at the source and relay, and the fading distributions of the links. It is shown that asymmetric statistical delay constraints at the buffers of the source and relay node can improve the achievable rate. Overall, the impact of the statistical delay tradeoff on the achievable throughput is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers the sum-rate (SR) maximization problem in downlink multi-user multiple input simgle output (MU-MISO) systems under imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). Contrary to existing works, we consider a rather unorthodox transmission scheme. In particular, the message intended to one of the users is split into two parts: a common part which can be recovered by all users, and a private part recovered by the corresponding user. On the other hand, the rest of users receive their information through private messages. This rate-splitting (RS) approach was shown to boost the achievable degrees of freedom when CSIT errors decay with increased SNR. In this paper, the RS strategy is married with linear precoder design and optimization techniques to achieve a maximized ergodic SR (ESR) performance over the entire range of SNRs. Precoders are designed based on partial CSIT knowledge by solving a stochastic rate optimization problem using means of sample average approximation coupled with the weighted minimum mean square error approach. Numerical results show that in addition to the ESR gains, the benefits of RS also include relaxed CSIT quality requirements and enhanced achievable rate regions compared with conventional transmission with no rate-splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High reliability and low latency are critical performance targets in the fifth-generation cellular networks. How does a full-duplex decode-forward relay fare in this context? To answer this question, we analyze the outage and (average) decoding-delay for both joint and sequential sliding window decoding. For comparison, we also analyze decoding delay of backward decoding and consider its existing outage analysis. In our analysis, we consider a block fading channel with full channel state information (CSI) availability at receivers and with limited CSI at transmitters and outage events at both relay and destination and channel variation over different blocks in sliding window decoding. Moreover, by analyzing the asymptotic performance at high SNR, we prove that both joint and sequential decoding achieve a full diversity order of two and derive the coding gain gaps between backward decoding and joint and sequential sliding window decoding. To see the benefits of full-duplex relaying, we also include the performance of half-duplex schemes and conclude that the preferred scheme depends on the rate, outage, and delay requirements for a specific service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are capable of achieving excellent performance and provide a useful alternative for the high-performance applications. However, at medium to high signal-to-noise ratios, an observable error floor arises from the loss of independence of messages passed under iterative graph-based decoding. In this paper, the error floor performance of the short block length codes is improved by the use of a novel candidate selection metric in code graph construction. The proposed multipath extrinsic message degree (EMD) approach avoids harmful structures in the graph by evaluating certain properties of the cycles introduced in each edge placement. We present multipath EMD-based designs for several structured LDPC codes, including quasi-cyclic and the irregular repeat accumulate codes. In addition, an extended class of the diversity-achieving codes on the challenging block fading channel is proposed and considered with the multipath EMD design. This combined approach is demonstrated to provide the gains in decoder convergence and error rate performance. A simulation study evaluates the performance of the proposed and existing state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been a growing interest on the study of diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT), the existing works are mostly restricted to the outcomes reported for Rayleigh, Rician, and Nakagami fading channels. In this paper, we investigate the optimal tradeoff in the presence of log-normal fading, which provides an accurate model for indoor wireless, optical wireless, and ultra-wideband channels. We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) log-normal channel, derive the outage probability expression, and then present the asymptotical DMT expression. It is shown that the asymptotical maximum diversity gain tends to infinity with logarithm of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To have further insight, we normalize the DMT with that of single-input single-output case and express the relative asymptotical DMT of the MIMO log-normal channel as a function of the number of transmit and receive antennas. We further study DMT for finite SNRs and demonstrate convergence to the asymptotical case. Extensive numerical results are provided to corroborate the analytical derivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the end-to-end mean squared error distortion in reconstructing a memoryless proper-complex Gaussian source transmitted over a set of parallel block-fading Gaussian noise channels, where the fading gains are modeled as correlated Rayleigh distributed random variables with different average powers, thus resulting in asymmetric average received signal noise ratios (SNRs). The distortion exponent (i.e., how fast the average distortion decays to zero as the average received SNR increases) of several coding strategies based on separate source and channel coding is characterized. The definition of distortion exponent commonly used in the literature for SNR-symmetric channels is generalized to the case of SNR-asymmetric channels. It is shown that fading correlation degrades the achievable mean squared error distortion, but does not affect the distortion exponent in the analyzed achievable schemes. The logarithm of the determinant of the fading correlation matrix is found to be a proxy for measuring the performance degradation due to correlation as compared with the case of independent fading. The proposed framework allows one to study any number of correlated parallel channels, contrary to the most of the literature that restricts attention to two channels only, with the same received SNR and with independent fading. In particular, a scheme based on the multiple description coding with more than two descriptions is analyzed; it is shown that determining the distortion exponent in this setting reduces to solving a linear program, which can be done numerically very efficiently. The proposed methodology relies on combining the ideas from linear innovation sequences and properties of determinant of sub-matrices. Interestingly, it is found that SNR-asymmetry is beneficial for multiple description coding when the total average received SNR in decibel is held constant. Even in the SNR-symmetric case, asymmetry in the compression rates is shown to lead to a larger distortion exponent than symmetric rates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider an amplify-and-forward hybrid satellite-terrestrial co-operative network in the presence of cochannel interference (CCI). More specifically, we assume that both the satellite-destination and the satellite-relay links undergo the shadowed-Rician fading and the relay-destination link follows the Nakagami-m fading. By applying the amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol at the terrestrial relay, both the relay and the destination are corrupted by cochannel interference from the terrestrial network. Based on this setup, we first derive the approximate statistical distributions signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR) and then analyze the system performance. To obtain more insights into the system performance, some asymptotical bit-error rate (BER) results are provided. Moreover, we extend our analysis to a multiple-relay network and analyze the asymptotic performance. Finally, some numerical results are provided to verify our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the performance of an optimal single stream beamforming scheme for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay network with dual-hop fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying. The source-relay and relay-destination channels undergo Rayleigh and Rician fading respectively. Different Rician fading scenarios are considered for relay-destination channel, depending on the rank of the Rician channel matrix. The channel state information is only available at the destination, and the destination computes the optimal transmit and receive beamforming vectors to maximize the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The optimal transmit beamforming vector is sent back to the transmitter via a dedicated feedback link. We derive new analytical expressions for the cumulative distribution function, probability density function, and moments to statistically characterize the properties of the instantaneous SNR. These statistical properties are used to analyze the system performance in terms of the outage probability, average bit error rate, and the ergodic capacity. The performance analysis investigates the effects of the Rician factor, rank of the line-of-sight component, and number of antennas at the nodes on the system performance. The results reveal that the optimal single stream beamforming system provides better performance than an orthogonal space-time block coded based AF MIMO system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We derive uniform approximations (UAs) for typical performance measures such as error probability, outage probability and capacity of wireless transmissions over flat fading channels impaired by noise. Uniform refers to the fact that these approximations are accurate over the whole range (low to high) of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values. First, the high-SNR results of Wang and Giannakis are generalized and unified for an arbitrary performance measure. Second, we develop a Mellin-transform-based procedure to construct low- and high-SNR asymptotics of error probability or outage. Specifically, these asymptotics are related to the left- and right-sided poles of a Mellin product with respect to its fundamental strip. Third, by using multiple low-SNR terms and a single high-SNR term, UAs for the error probability of coherent modulation are constructed for Rayleigh fading, maximal-ratio-combining (MRC), selection-combining (SC), dual hop relaying, and co-channel interference. UAs are also developed for the error probability of single- and multi-channel differential modulation, the product of two Q functions, and the miss probability of energy detection. By using a single low-SNR term and multiple high-SNR terms, the outage probability UA is also developed. Finally, since the capacity measure is not an exponentially decaying function, we derive a UA for an intermediate function which is based on the moment-generating function (MGF) and ultimately, the resulting approximation for the capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a multi-relay adaptive turbo-coded cooperative diversity scheme over Nakagami- m fading channels. In the underlying scheme, after receiving a fraction of the codeword determined by a tradeoff parameter denoted by f, all the relays decode, and only the reliable relays forward the rest of the codeword to the destination. We assume binary phase-shift keying modulation and analyze the scheme under study in terms of bit error rate (BER) and outage probability. Union bounds on the BER are derived using the transfer function bounding and the limit-before-average techniques. Furthermore, we examine the asymptotic behavior of the system in the high-signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) regime using the derived pairwise error probability (PEP). We also derive a closed-form expression for the outage probability of the system and its high-SNR approximation to evaluate the achievable diversity order. Simulations are provided to assess the accuracy of our analytical work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we provide an information-theoretic analysis of a Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output multiple access channel (MIMO MAC) with imperfect channel knowledge at the receiver. In particular, we derive inner and outer bounds for the MIMO MAC rate region when the inputs are Gaussian. We then apply these bounds to a Gaussian interference network with receiver cooperation, in which a central processor with incomplete channel state information must jointly decode all the received signals. Then, in the case where the channel knowledge at the receiver is obtained through training signals, we derive the structure of the optimum training signals for all users under a definite and semidefinite rank constraint. Numerical results show that the bounds we derive can be quite tight, confirming the asymptotic analysis conducted for the finite case. Finally, we also investigate the low-SNR and high-SNR regimes, specifically analyzing the minimum required energy per information bit and the wideband slope region in the first case, and the high-SNR slope in the second. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-hop wireless communication link in which a source sends data to a destination with the aid of an intermediate relay node is studied. It is assumed that there is no direct link between the source and the destination, and the relay forwards the information to the destination by employing the decode-and-forward scheme. Both the source and intermediate relay nodes are assumed to operate under statistical quality of service (QoS) constraints imposed as limitations on the buffer overflow probabilities. The maximum constant arrival rates that can be supported by this two-hop link in the presence of QoS constraints are characterized by determining the effective capacity of such links as a function of the QoS parameters and signal-to-noise ratios at the source and relay, and the fading distributions of the links. The analysis is performed for both full-duplex and half-duplex relaying. Through this study, the impact upon the throughput of having buffer constraints at the source and intermediate relay nodes is identified. The interactions between the buffer constraints in different nodes and how they affect the performance are studied. The optimal time-sharing parameter in half-duplex relaying is determined, and performance with half-duplex relaying is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The noncoherent capacity of stationary discrete-time fading channels is known to be very sensitive to the fine details of the channel model. More specifically, the measure of the support of the fading-process power spectral density (PSD) determines if noncoherent capacity grows logarithmically with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or slower than logarithmically. Such a result is unsatisfactory from an engineering point of view, as the support of the PSD cannot be determined through measurements. The aim of this paper is to assess whether, for general continuous-time Rayleigh-fading channels, this sensitivity has a noticeable impact on capacity at SNR values of practical interest. To this end, we consider the general class of band-limited continuous-time Rayleigh-fading channels that satisfy the wide-sense stationary uncorrelated-scattering (WSSUS) assumption and are, in addition, underspread. We show that, for all SNR values of practical interest, the noncoherent capacity of every channel in this class is close to the capacity of an additive white Gaussian noise channel with the same SNR and bandwidth, independently of the measure of the support of the scattering function (the 2-D channel PSD). Our result is based on a lower bound on noncoherent capacity, which is built on a discretization of the channel input–output relation induced by projecting onto Weyl–Heisenberg sets. This approach is interesting in its own right as it yields a mathematically tractable way of dealing with the mutual information between certain continuous-time random signals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Subset diversity (SSD) techniques, which select and combine the signals from a subset of the available diversity branches, are important for practical wireless systems. This paper characterizes the performance loss, or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) penalty, of one SSD system with respect to another. Both ideal and non-ideal channel estimation are considered, and the analysis is valid for the important case of arbitrary two-dimensional signal constellations. Expressions are given for the asymptotic SNR penalty, for both small and large SNR, for all the comparisons considered. Additionally, we develop bounds and approximations to quantify the performance of one system in terms of another for all SNRs of interest. Furthermore, for some signal constellations, we derive the exact SNR penalty of a non-ideal system with respect to an ideal system, as well as the exact penalty associated with two non-ideal systems with varying degrees of estimation energy. The SNR penalty enables the assessment of system sensitivity to channel estimation energy, combining architecture, and signal constellation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose and analyze a multihop transmission scheme based on detect-and-forward (DF) relay protocol and network coding (NC) for two-way relay channels. In this scheme, the odd relays perform hard detection and then forward the detected signals to the next hop, whereas the even relays perform NC on the detected signals from the two adjacent nodes and broadcast them to the next hop. By separating the network into multiple two-hop subsystems, we develop closed-form expressions for bit error rate (BER) in flat Rayleigh fading channels. Our results are given as both lower bound and asymptotic expression based on an accurate upper bound of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is shown that the proposed scheme has the same asymptotic BER performance and a much higher throughput compared with the conventional bidirectional relay scheme based on four transmission phases. Therefore, the proposed scheme is efficient for practical wireless applications. Simulation results are provided to validate the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper elaborates on the ergodic capacity of fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) dual-hop systems, which have recently attracted considerable research and industry interest. In particular, two novel capacity bounds that allow for fast and efficient computation and apply for nonidentically distributed hops are derived. More importantly, they are generic since they apply to a wide range of popular fading channel models. Specifically, the proposed upper bound applies to Nakagami-m, Weibull, and generalized-K fading channels, whereas the proposed lower bound is more general and applies to Rician fading channels. Moreover, it is explicitly demonstrated that the proposed lower and upper bounds become asymptotically exact in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. Based on our analytical expressions and numerical results, we gain valuable insights into the impact of model parameters on the capacity of fixed-gain AF dual-hop relaying systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Minimum-selection generalized selection combining (MS-GSC) has been proposed as a power-saving variant of conventional generalized selection combining (GSC). Existing performance results of this scheme are limited to interference-free environments under multipath fading. This paper addresses the scenario when the received desired signal on each diversity branch is corrupted by multiple interfering signals and background noise, wherein desired and undesired signals undergo mutually independent Rayleigh fading. In the absence of perfect tracking of the instantaneous interference power on diversity branches, the adaptation thresholds that are set on the combined signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to enhance either the spectral efficiency or power efficiency in noise-limited environments may not guarantee the target performance. This paper aims to study the effect of cochannel interference on the performance of bandwidth- and power-efficient SNR-based MS-GSC. Through the analysis, new analytical results for some important performance measures of adaptive MS-GSC schemes are presented. Numerical comparisons to clarify the impact of cochannel interference on the achieved performance of the adaptation schemes under consideration are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Channel estimation at the receiver side is essential to adaptive modulation schemes, prohibiting low complexity systems from using variable rate and/or variable power transmissions. Towards providing a solution to this problem, we introduce a variable-rate (VR) M-PSK modulation scheme, for communications over fading channels, in the absence of channel gain estimation at the receiver. The choice of the constellation size is based on the signal-plus-noise (S+N) sampling value rather than on the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). It is analytically shown that S+N can serve as an attractive simpler criterion, alternative to S/N, for determining the modulation order in VR systems. In this way, low complexity transceivers can use VR transmissions in order to increase their spectral efficiency under an error performance constraint. As an application, we utilize the proposed VR modulation scheme in equal gain combining (EGC) diversity receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymptotic error rate expressions are derived for multi-branch equal gain combining and selection combining operating on arbitrarily correlated Rayleigh fading channels. These closed-form solutions are used to provide rapid and accurate estimation of the error rates in large signal-to-noise ratio regions. More importantly, they reveal additional insights into the transmission characteristics of linear diversity combining schemes operating on correlated Rayleigh fading channels. It is shown that the asymptotic error rates over correlated branches can be obtained by scaling the asymptotic error rates over independent branches with a factor, det(M), where det( M) is the determinant of the normalized channel correlation matrix. This relationship is valid for both coherent and noncoherent signalings. A similar relationship is also established for the outage probabilities of fading wireless systems employing multi-branch diversity reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the trail-blazing paper of C. Shannon in 1948, channel capacity has been regarded as the fundamental information-theoretic performance measure to predict the maximum information rate of a communication system. However, in contrast with the analysis of other important performance measures of wireless communication systems, a unified and general approach for computing the channel capacity over fading channels has yet to be proposed. Motivated by this consideration, we propose a novel and unified communication-theoretic framework for the analysis of channel capacity over fading channels. It is shown that the framework can handle various fading channel models, communication types, and adaptation transmission policies. In particular, the specific contributions of this paper are as follows: 1) We introduce a transform operator, called the Ei-transform, which is shown to provide a unified tool to compute the channel capacity with either side information at the receiver or side information at the transmitter and the receiver, directly from the momentgenerating function (MGF) or the MGF and the truncated MGF of the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) at the receiver, respectively; 2) we show that when either a channel inversion or a truncated channel inversion adaptation policy is considered, the channel capacity can readily be computed from the Mellin or the Hankel transform of the MGF of the received SNR, respectively; 3) a simple yet effective numerical method for the analysis of higher order statistics (HOS) of the channel capacity with side information at the receiver is introduced; and 4) some efficient and ad hoc numerical methods are explicitly introduced to allow the efficient computation of the proposed frameworks. Numerical and simulation results are also shown and compared to substantiate the analytical derivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]