Series expressions for the performance of binary detection receivers

It is demonstrated that series expressions for the probability of error (PE) in binary detection and the consequent tight yet simple bounds on PE can often be readily derived and have advantages, in many cases, over the more familiar analytical closed-form expressions for PE. A major advantage is the applicability of the series approach to certain communication systems where the probability density function of the sufficient statistic cannot be derived in convenient analytical form, but the characteristic function of the sufficient statistic is available. The series approach is applied here to the particular cases of Rician and Rayleigh fading diversity channels.