An approximate result is obtained for the bit-error probability of qua
driphase shift keying in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise
and a Tikhonov distributed-phase-reference error. The accuracy of the
approximation is verified via actual numerical integration of the bit
-error probability formula. The approximation is easy to compute, and
shows correctly the behaviour of the bit-error probability as a functi
on of the signal-to-noise ratio. In particular, it shows that, for hig
h signal-to-noise ratios, the bit-error probability behaves as the rec
iprocal of the square root of the former.