This paper presents a method of predicting the bit-error rate (BER) performance of the global system for mobile communications (GSM) system as a function of the wideband channel parameters obtainable from measured or assumed power delay profiles. Although delay spread is found to be the most useful parameter for the prediction of BER performance, it has been shown that in some conditions delay interval (15 dB) can provide a more accurate prediction mechanism. Thus, based on the delay spread and the delay interval (15 dB), empirical prediction formulas are derived.

Personal communication networks (PCN) have recently been put into operation in the UK. The PCN/DCS1800 is expected to be a very high capacity system because smaller cells are intended to be used. The data rate of 270 kbits/sec exceeds the reciprocal of the decay spread often measured in mobile radio environments. Hence PCN can be regarded as a wideband transmission system and therefore the frequency-selective fading behaviour of the radio channel cannot be ignored. This paper shows possible improvements that can be obtained if PCN systems employ 2-branch selection or equal gain diversity techniques. The diversity schemes implemented in this study are totally based on the received signal strength. The results show that, at a BER of 0.01, 2-branch selection diversity can provide a gain of 5-6 dB for the various channels specified for the DCS1800 system. A further 1 dB improvement can be obtained using equal-gain combining.>