Performance of a multiple transmitter system in Gaussian noise

R. Marshall Coon, R. M. Demmer, and Clark C. Watterson

Abstract: A multiple transmitter system, where transmitters at different locations send the same message simultaneously, was tested in the laboratory under simulated typical conditions. The results agreed very closely with those obtained theoretically and show that, in general, an actual communication system of this type with only a few transmitters will offer performance very close to the theoretical value for an infinite number of transmitters. Even for a limited number of transmitters, the total spread in the required signal-to-noise ratios is only about 7 dB for a probability of error of 10-3 and 5 dB for a probability of error of 10-2 . This is a considerable reduction compared to the 43 and 26 dB respectively given in Nesenberg's theoretical work. It results from the fact that the upper and lower limits of the theoretical work represent hypothetical cases that are not likely to occur in practice.

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