Signal-to-noise ratio estimation for M-QAM signals in η−μand κ−μfading channels

Abstract

In this paper, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation is carried out by the method of moments (MOM) for fading channels modeled by probability distributions η−μ and κ−μ, considering M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) with constellation energy normalized to one. New expressions are presented for the SNR estimation and for the mean, variance, and normalized mean square error (NMSE) of the estimates, obtained by a statistical linearization argument. Additionally, it is shown how to obtain the SNR estimate for Nakagami-m channel from the estimation derived for the models η−μ and κ−μ. The results obtained from the analytical expressions are corroborated by simulation results and show that the MOM is a suitable alternative for scenarios in which the mathematical tractability does not suggest the application of other estimation techniques.