IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 16, NO.

4, APRIL 2012 473

Analytical Model for Outage Probability of Interference-Limited Systems

over Extended Generalized-K Fading Channels
Jelena A. Anastasov, Student Member, IEEE, Goran T. Djordjevic, Member, IEEE,
and Mihajlo C. Stefanovic, Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this letter, the novel analytical expressions for
the probability density function, cumulative distribution function
and moment generating function of the signal-to-interference
ratio are derived for the interference-limited system operating
over the extended generalized-K (EGK) fading channel. Since
the EGK distribution can be used for modeling a great variety
of fading channels, the new derived formulae have high level
of generality and can be used for estimating the effects of
interference and different composite fading channel conditions
on system performance. The proposed analytical analysis is com-
plemented by various outage performance results and confirmed
by simulations.
Index Terms—Co-channel interference, extended generalized-
K distribution, fading channel, outage probability, shadowing.
performance analysis of systems corrupted by interference,
over composite GK fading channels, was presented in [3], [6].
In this letter, the interference-limited wireless communica-
tion system over composite EGK fading channel is considered.
We derive the novel analytical expressions for the SIR’s proba-
bility density function (PDF), cumulative distribution function
(CDF) and moment generating function (MGF). In addition,
we present some numerical examples to illustrate the outage
probability dependence on the severity and shaping factor
of multipath fading and shadowing. The numerical results
obtained based on the analytical approach are confirmed by
Monte Carlo simulations.

II. P ERFORMANCE E VALUATIONS

I. I NTRODUCTION In proposed system, both desired and interfering signal ex-
periences EGK fading. The EGK distributed random envelope
I N performance evaluations of wireless communication
systems, one of the most important concerns is statistical
characterization of signal propagation. During the signal trans-
process is given by [7, eq. (1), (with correcting one typo)]
2ξ βs β mξ 2mξ−1
pX (x) = Γ(ms )Γ(m) ( Ω ) x
mission, many buildings and other ambient objects disturb (1)
the signal in a way of delaying, reflecting, scattering, and × Γei (ms − m ξξs , 0, ( βΩs β )ξ x2ξ , ξξs ),
diffracting signal components [1]. In addition, there are slow where m and ξ represent the severity and shaping factor of
variations of the received signal mean power because of the fading, respectively; while ms and ξs represent the severity
shadowing from various obstacles in the propagation path. and shaping factor of the shadowing, respectively; β = Γ(m+
This composite propagation environment of multipath fading 1/ξ)/Γ(m), βs = Γ(ms+1/ξs )/Γ(ms ), Ω is the average power,
imposed by shadowing phenomena was recently described Γ(.) is the Gamma function [9, eq. (1.1)] and Γei (., ., ., .) is
by K [2] and generalized-K (GK) [3-6] distributions. More the extended incomplete Gamma function [9, eq. (6.2)].
recently, extended generalized-K (EGK) [7] was derived as Using representation of the extended incomplete Gamma
advanced distribution, which includes most of the well-known function through the Fox’s H function [9, eq. (6.22)], the
fading distributions in the literature as its special cases, also desired signal envelope, R, and interfering signal envelope,
containing two previously mentioned distributions [7, Table r, as EGK random variables can be respectively described by
I]. This distribution is suitable for modeling composite fading following PDFs
channels of next-generation wireless systems operating on   
2
high frequencies. In [7], Yilmaz and Alouini derived the 2 2,0 β sd β d R  −, −
pR (R)= H  1 1
expressions for capacity and bit error probability for some Γ(msd )Γ(md )R 0,2 Ωd (msd , ξsd),(md , ξd)
binary modulations and second order statistics of the system (2)
operating over EGK fading and Gaussian noise. and
In many wireless communication systems the co-channel   
2
2 2,0 β sc β c r  −, −
interference is a more relevant source of performance im- pr (r)= H  1 1 ,
pairment than front-end Gaussian noise [8]. In that case, Γ(msc )Γ(mc )r 0,2 Ωc (msc , ξsc),(mc , ξc)
the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is the most effective (3)
performance criterion in performance evaluations. The outage where the previously defined parameters in (1) are indexed
by d for the desired signal and c for interfering one. The
Manuscript received October 31, 2011. The associate editor coordinating Fox’s H function, defined by [10, eq. (1.1.2)], is denoted by
the review of this letter and approving it for publication was P. Cotae. 
The authors are with the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of  (a i , Ai )1,p
m,n
Hp,q z , where p, q, m, n are integers such
Nis, Serbia (e-mail: jelena.anastasov@elfak.ni.ac.rs).  (bi , Bi )1,q
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science of the Republic of
Serbia under the grants TR-32028 and III-044006. that 0≤m≤q, 0≤n≤p; ai , bj ∈C, where C is the set of complex
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LCOMM.2012.020712.112228 numbers, and Ai , Bj ∈ + = (0, ∞), (i = 1, ..., p; j = 1, ..., q).
1089-7798/12$31.00 
c 2012 IEEE
474 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 16, NO. 4, APRIL 2012

To simplify Fox’s H function, one can use [11, p. 531, eq.

(22)] and [9, eq. (6.108)] to represent it through the Meijer’s
G function and forward use [12, eqs. (07.34.03.0001.01)-
(07.34.06.0012.01)] to represent it in a form of more tractable
functions, mostly in a form of hypergeometric functions.
The PDF of SIR, defined as z = R2 /r2 , is given by [13]
 ∞
√ √
pz (z) = 1/(2 z) rpR (r z)pr (r)dr. (4)
0

After substituting (2) and (3) into (4), we get

  
 ∞ −1 2,0 βsd βd r2 z  −, −
pz (z) = 2g 0 r H0,2 Ωd  (m , 1 ), (m , 1 )
 sd ξsd d ξd
  
 −, −
2,0 βsc βc r 2 
×H0,2 Ωc  (m , 1 ), (m , 1 ) dr,
 sc ξsc c ξc
(5) Fig. 1. Outage probability dependence on normalized SIR for different values
of shadowing severity.
with g = 1/(Γ(msd )Γ(md )Γ(msc )Γ(mc )). The integral in (5)
can be solved using [10, eq. (2.1.4)] to transform the second
Fox’s H function and then using [10, eq. (2.8.12)]. After some
III. N UMERICAL R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
mathematical manipulations, the required PDF is derived in a
form The numerical results, based on previously derived expres-
  
g 2,2 βsd βd z (1 − msc , ξ1sc ), (1 − mc , ξ1c ) sions, are performed in Mathematica 7, using transform of the
pz (z) = H2,2  , Fox’s H function into the Meijer’s G function [11, p. 531, eq.
z βsc βc S  (msd , ξ1sd ), (md , ξ1d )
(22)] integrated in this software package.
(6)
The Monte Carlo simulations are performed in Fortran using
where S = Ωd /Ωc denotes the average SIR.
[7, eq. (1), (with correcting two typos)]
The derived eq. (6) can be simplified to [3, eq. (15)],
as expected, since the EGK distribution contains GK dis-  ξs  2ξ1  ξm  2ξ1
Ωs 
ms s
Ωm 
mm m
tribution (observed in [3]) as a special case. By setting R= Sk2 Xk2 , (9)
ξd = ξc = ξsd = ξsc = 1 in (6), the Fox’s H function is βs
k=1
βm
k=1
simplified into Meijer’s G function using [9, eq. (6.108)]
and forward into regularized hypergeometric function using where Sk and Xk are two sets of independent random
[12, eq. (07.34.03.0871.01)]. After some algebra and using variables with Rayleigh distribution whose average power
the relation [12, eq. (06.18.27.0001.01)], (6) reduces to [3, is equal to one. These Rayleigh distributed variables are
2 2 0.5
eq. (15)], i.e. [6, eq. (17)] in the case of single interference generated according to the relations: Sk = (yk1 + yk2 )
2 2 0.5
environment. and Xk = (wk1 + wk2 ) , where yk1 , yk2 , wk1 and wk2 are
∞ independent Gaussian random variables with zero mean value.
The CDF of instantaneous SIR, Fz (z) = 0 pz (u)du, is
obtained using [10, eqs. (2.8.17), (2.1.9)], in the following Since we are interested for estimating the outage probability,
form the fading samples are assumed to be temporarily uncorrelated.
   For each value of the average SIR, the Pout is estimated using
 1 1
2,3 βsd βd z (1−msc , ξsc ), (1−mc , ξc ), (1, 1) N = 2 × 109 generated samples. According to [15, p. 691-
Fz (z)=gH3,3  .
βsc βc S  (msd , ξ1sd ), (md , ξ1d ), (0, 1) 694] with independence assumption between error events and
(7) their normal distribution, for the Pout of 10−7 , this number
The outage probability, Pout , is defined as the probability of generated samples would produce a 99 percents confidence
that SIR falls below predetermined threshold, λ, Pout (λ) = interval of about (8.1×10−8, 1.2×10−7). In our case, we also
Fz (λ). empirically concluded that this number of simulation runs is
The MGF, defined as Mz (Δ)=E{e−Δz }, where E denotes sufficient for good agreement with analytical results for some
expectation operator, can be derived using [14, eq. (2.19)] in typical system parameters [7].
a form Fig. 1 illustrates that shadowing has considerable influence
   on the Pout . To maintain Pout of 10−6 the required value
2,3 βsd βd  (1−msc , ξ1sc ), (1−mc, ξ1c ), (1, 1) of S/λ in severe shadowing (ms = 1) environment is 34.8
Mz (Δ)=gH3,2  .
Δβsc βc S (msd , ξ1sd ), (md , ξ1d ) dB, and in the case of light shadowing (ms=5) that value is
(8) 16.5 dB. As ms increases, the Pout becomes less sensitive to
By setting Δ → 0 and using [10, eqs. (2.1.3), (1.1.2)], (8) ms .
becomes Mz (0)=1, as it should be. The MGF can be used Fig 2. illustrates the outage performance improvement with
in evaluating average bit error rate for several modulation shadowing shaping factor increasing. The more the value of
schemes. In addition, the n-th order moments can be derived the fading severity, the less is the effect of shaping factor
from (8) using [10, eq. (2.2.1)]. on outage performance. When shadowing shaping parameter
decreases from 3 to 1, the penalty in S/λ, which should be
ANASTASOV et al.: ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR OUTAGE PROBABILITY OF INTERFERENCE-LIMITED SYSTEMS OVER EXTENDED GENERALIZED-K . . .
Fig. 2. Outage probability dependence on normalized SIR for different values
of fading and shadowing shaping factor.
Fig. 3. Required normalized SIR values for different multipath fading
severity and outage probability values.
paid in order to achieve the Pout of 10−6 , is 3.64 dB in severe
fading (md = 1) and even 11.31 dB in light fading (md = 3).
The analytical expressions derived previously can be ap-
plied in determining the required values of S/λ (denoted by
(S/λ)req ) in order to reach the specified Pout for different
fading conditions. Fig. 3 presents the dependence of (S/λ)req
on fading severity for different values of Pout . The lower
the Pout , the (S/λ)req decreases more sharply with md
increasing. For example, if md increases from 1 to 3, the
(S/λ)req decreases for 12.2 dB and 6.2 dB when Pout is
10−7 and 10−3 , respectively.
On the personal computer with 8 GB RAM and 3.4 GHz
Intel i7 processor running Windows 7, the required time for
computing any value of the Pout , using (7), is less than
10−2 s. For calculating the Pout of about 10−7 , analytical
approach, which has been derived in this work, is about 75000
475
time more computationally efficient compared to simulation
using N = 2 × 109 simulation runs. The less the value of
Pout , the analytical approach becomes more superior related
to simulations in the sense of time consuming.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This letter has presented an analytical approach for the
outage probability determination of interference-limited sys-
tems over EGK fading channel. To the best of the authors’
knowledge, the derived eqs. (6), (7) and (8) are novel and
can be simplified to some particular cases already reported.
The analytical expressions require less time for calculation
compared with simulations. Numerical results, obtained by
analytical approach and also confirmed by simulations, have
shown the effects of the severity and shaping factor of the
multipath fading and shadowing on the outage probability. The
expression for the outage probability can be straightforwardly
used for analyzing selection and switch-and-stay combining
diversity receivers, as well as dual-hop cooperative systems.
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