On the computation of the higher-order statistics of the channel capacity over generalized fading channels

The higher-order statistics (HOS) of the channel capacity μn=E[logn (1+γ end)], where n ∈ N denotes the order of the statistics, has received relatively little attention in the literature, due in part to the intractability of its analysis. In this letter, we propose a novel and unified analysis, which is based on the moment generating function (MGF) technique, to exactly compute the HOS of the channel capacity. More precisely, our mathematical formalism can be readily applied to maximal-ratio-combining (MRC) receivers operating in generalized fading environments. The mathematical formalism is illustrated by some numerical examples focusing on the correlated generalized fading environments. © 2012 IEEE.