Piboongungon, Terawat.

The main focus of this dissertation is to analyze the performance of linear diversity schemes operating in generalized gamma fading channels. The generalized gamma fading model is a versatile fading envelope that generalizes many of commonly used statistical models that describe signal fluctuations due to multipath, shadowing, or a mixture of such processes. The traditional linear diversity combining techniques such as maximal ratio combining (MRC), equal gain combining (EGC), and selection combining (SC) are addressed with reference to generalized gamma fading environments. For the special case of Nakagami fading, new expressions for outage probability and error-rate performance of linear diversity schemes with arbitrary fading parameters are derived in terms of the Lauricella function. Effects of correlated fading are also studied. Their fruitful application to third generation (3G) wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems, particularly for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and 2D-RAKE receivers are demonstrated. The results exhibit a finite integral representation that can be used for fast and accurate numerical computation. A detail study is also done on multivariate generalized gamma fading environments. Relevant statistical characterization of the sum of independent generalized gamma random variables is derived and expressed in terms of the multivariable Fox's H-function. Since numerical evaluation for the multivariate Fox's H-function is difficult, simpler numerical computations are developed using moment generating function and characteristic function approaches. Since some wireless applications may not have enough space among diversity branches, the statistical characterizations of multivariate correlated generalized gamma fading are relevant in such cases. An investigation on the outage performance for multi-branch selection combining is performed for the correlated multivariate generalized gamma channel. Finally, the dissertation summarizes the main results and explores some directions for further studies.