The equivalent transmission-path model is a propagation-oriented channel model for predicting the bit error rate due to intersymbol interference in single-input single-output systems. We extend this model to develop a new calculation scheme for maximal-ratio combining diversity reception in single-input multiple-output configurations. A key part of the study is to derive a general formula expressing the joint probability density function of the amplitude ratio and phase difference of the two-path model. In this derivation, we mainly take a theoretical approach with the aid of Monte Carlo simulation. Then, very high-accuracy estimation of the average bit error rate due to intersymbol interference (ISI) for CQPSK calculated based on the model is confirmed by computer simulation. Finally, we propose a very simple calculation formula for the prediction of the BER due to ISI that is commonly applicable to various modulation/demodulation schemes, such as CQPSK, DQPSK, 16QAM, and CBPSK in maximal-ratio combining diversity reception.

Ray tracing is an efficient method for analyzing transmission characteristic of indoor wireless systems. However for simulating the transmission characteristic, using a path profile obtained by ray tracing, calculation times become enormous and there is no good theoretical model which can link a path analysis result with digital transmission characteristics evaluation. To overcome such problems, in this paper, a simple calculation method on spatial distribution of error occurrence due to intersymbol interference (ISI) based on "the equivalent transmission-path (ETP) model" is proposed. The ETP model is a technique that can simply estimate statistics of errors due to ISI that arise in Rayleigh and Nakagami-Rice fading environments. If a simple calculation method proposed in this paper is used, calculation time of digital transmission characteristics evaluation become tremendously shorter and results of this method agree with those of exact simulations with sufficient accuracy.