Comparative Study of Spatial Diversity Techniques in Log-Normal Shadowing Channels

This study explores the effectiveness of spatial diversity techniques in log-normal shadowing channels, which are crucial for enhancing the reliability and efficiency of wireless communication systems. Extensive simulation and analysis are done to investigate different spatial diversity techniques i.e. maximal ratio combining (MRC), space-time block codes (STBC) and selection combining (SC) in combination with different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and shadowing variance conditions. We evaluate the effectiveness of the techniques through performance metrics including Bit Error Rate (BER), spectral efficiency, and signal-to-noise ratio. The results show that MRC and STBC perform better in most scenarios, which highlight the necessity of antenna diversity for system reliability and spectral efficiency. These findings while signaling the possible future enhancements of the wireless communication systems working under shadowed propagation environments are of paramount value in optimizing the system designs.