A Markov model for block errors on fading channels

We investigate the behavior of block errors which arise in data transmission on fading channels. Our approach is more detailed than previous studies, in that it takes into account the specific coding/modulation scheme and it tracks the fading process symbol by symbol. It is shown that a Markov approximation for the block error process (possibly degenerating into an i.i.d. process for sufficiently fast fading) is a very good model for a broad range of parameters. Also, it is observed that the relationship between the marginal error rate and the transition probability is largely insensitive to parameters such as block length, degree of forward error correction and modulation format, and only depends on an appropriately normalized version of the Doppler frequency. This observation leads to a unified approach for the channel modelling which simplifies the performance analysis of upper-layer protocols