Performance characterization of digital transmission systems with cochannel interference

This paper presents a general methodology for performance characterization of digital transmission systems in the presence of cochannel interference, as a function of the actual number of interferers (ranging from zero to inf inity). Bit error probability in time-invariant channels and outage probabi lity in time-varying quasi-stationary channels are discussed. More precisely, a general approach to an outage probability definition base d on the concept of outage domain is introduced. This allows the discussion of the relation to the other definitions which have appeared in the litera ture and the proposal of some new more accurate methods for the evaluation of outage probability. A suitable comparison between exact evaluation, the well-known Gaussian approximation, and the other new approaches proposed in this paper, is carried out. To evaluate performance, bit error probability is suitably obtained for lin early modulated signals by adopting a semianalytical approach, and for nonl inear (e.g., continuous phase) modulation signals, by means of simulation. Finally, as an example, the different approaches to derive performance disc ussed in the paper have been applied to a linear microcellular scenario.