Generalized BER of MCIK-OFDM with imperfect CSI: selection combining GD versus ML receivers

This paper analyzes the bit error rate (BER) of multicarrier index keying—orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MCIK-OFDM) with selection combining (SC) diversity reception. Particularly, we propose a generalized framework to derive the BER for both the low-complexity greedy detector (GD) and maximum likelihood (ML) detector. Based on this, closed-form expressions for the BERs of MCIK-OFDM with the SC using either the ML or the GD are derived in presence of the channel state information (CSI) imperfection. The asymptotic analysis is presented to gain helpful insights into effects of different CSI conditions on the BERs of these two detectors. More importantly, we theoretically provide opportunities for using the GD instead of the ML under each specific CSI uncertainty, which depend on the number of receiver antennas and the M-ary modulation size. Finally, extensive simulation results are provided in order to validate our theoretical expressions and analysis. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.