1
Product of α-µ, η -µ, and κ-µ Fading Channels
Carlos Rafael Nogueira da Silva, Nidhi Simmons, Simon L. Cotton and Michel Daoud Yacoub, Member, IEEE
Abstract—New, closed-form expressions for the probability
density function and cumulative distribution function for the
product of any number of random envelopes taken from the
α-µ, η-µ, and κ-µ distributions are derived. The results are
obtained in terms of the Fox H-function on several variables
and a fairly simple infinite series expansion is also provided.
The product of random envelopes finds application in a plethora
of areas in wireless communications such as multihop systems,
cascaded channels, multiple-input-multiple-output links, radar
communications, among many others. The great relevance of the
product distribution requires a more precise and exact charac-
terization of its statistics. Furthermore, the results comprise a
great range of product distribution due to the high generality
of the distributions considered. As an applications example, the
performance metrics for the cascaded channel are provided and
Monte Carlo simulation is used to verify the accuracy of the
expressions presented here. Moreover, a practical application in
multihop communications in body area networks is presented.
Index Terms—α-µ distribution, η-µ distribution, κ-µ distribu-
tion, cascaded channel, outage probability, keyhole channel.
I. I NTRODUCTION
F UTURE Wireless communications systems for the fifth
generation (5g) and for the sixth (6g) will be required to
push the boundaries of transmission rate of today’s architec-
ture. Disruptive technologies such as relayed communications
(multihop) [1]–[5], device-to-device (D2D) [6]–[10], vehicle-
to-vehicle (V2V) [11]–[16], massive multiple-input multiple-
output (MIMO) [17]–[21] to name but a few, were proposed
in these past few years promising a leap forward towards the
physical limits of errorless communications. A common place
in most of this new technologies are the need for a perfect
knowledge of the fading channel statistics.
The signal fading is predominantly caused by two physical
phenomena, namely, shadowing and multipath. The former
is the result of obstacles in the direct radio path causing
slow fluctuations, while the latter is due to scattering, re-
flections, and diffraction resulting in rapid signal fluctuations.
The shadowing is completely characterized by the lognormal
distribution, although the gamma and α-µ fading models have
been used in lieu of the lognormal [22], [23], to circumvent its
This work was supported by FAPESP under grant reference 2018/16667-
8, by CNPq under Grant Reference 304248/2014-2 and by the U.K. En-
gineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grant Reference
EP/L026074/1.
C. R. N. da Silva and M. D. Yacoub are with the Wireless Tech-
nology Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Uni-
versity of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil. E-mail: {carlosrn,
michel}@decom.fee.unicamp.br
N. Simmons and S. L. Cotton are with the Wireless Communications Labo-
ratory, Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology,
The Queen’s University of Belfast, Queen’s Road, Belfast, BT3 9DT, UK.
E-mail: {nidhi.simmons, simon.cotton}@qub.ac.uk
This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication.
Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may
no longer be accessible.
inherent analytical intricacy. On the other hand, the multipath
phenomenon is characterized by several fading distributions
such as Nakagami-m, Weibull, Hoyt, Rice, among many
others, each one providing a good fit to field data under
certain assumptions. More general fading distributions were
recently proposed to encompass multiple physical phenomena
associated to multipath fading. It is worthy of remark the α-µ
[24], η-µ, and κ-µ [25] models. These fading distributions take
into account two physical phenomena among non-linearity (α),
power imbalances (η) and dominant component (κ).
These fading models for multipath and shadowing have
shown insufficient to fully characterize novel scenarios in
5g. To better understanding the underlying effects of the
channel, more general models were used encompassing more
and more physical phenomena. Among these, stands out the
α-η-κ-µ [26], generalized K [27], the Fisher-Snedecor F [28],
and other composite models. Most composite models (which
includes the generalized K and F) are particular cases of
the product of random variables. This arithmetical operation
have been widely used to characterize the fading channels of
emergent technologies. For instance, the equivalent channel
in cascaded channels and multihop systems [29], [30] is the
result of the product of each individual gain. The product of
random variables is also used to model the received signal in
keyhole MIMO channels [17], [18]. In radar communications,
high resolution synthetic aperture radar clutter [31] is modelled
as the product of two random fading. As a particular of the
product of random variables, composite models have been used
to described wireless communications systems such as body
area networks (BAN) [32], D2D [33], and V2V [34].
Taking into account the plethora of wireless communica-
tions processes intricately connected with the product distri-
bution, this paper derives expressions for the statistics - namely
probability density function (PDF), cumulative distribution
function (CDF) - for the product of an arbitrary number of
fading envelopes taken from the α-µ, η-µ, and κ-µ models.
To the best of the authors knowledge, these are the most
general expressions for the product distributions. The PDF
and CDF are given both in terms of the multivariable Fox H-
function and as a relatively simple infinite series. In addition,
the asymptotic expressions for the lower tail (i.e. r ∼ 0) of
both PDF and CDF were also derived. These are important
results as the behavior of the statistics for high signal-to-noise
ratio depends exclusively on how the channel behave at the
proximity of r = 0 [35]. An application example was included
to demonstrate the utility of the formulations as well as a
practical application for multihop communication in body area
networks.
The remainder of the paper goes as follows: Section II
revisits the fundamentals of the fading α-µ, η-µ, and κ-µ
models, and the required mathematical backaground to derived
 2

the desired statistics; In Section III, the expression for the PDF in which µ , E2 [R2 ]/V[R2 ] × (1 + (H/h)2 )/2 > 0. The
and CDF of the product of an arbitrary number of random parameters h and H are function of η and defined accordingly
variables are obtained; Section IV delivers the asymptotic to the adopted format. In format 1, η > 0 is the ratio between
expression for the PDF and CDF. Performance metrics for in-phase and quadratures scattered-waves with h = (2+η −1 +
a cascaded channel is given at Section V; Numerical results η)/4 and H = (η −1 − η)/4. In format 2, −1 < η < 1 is
are illustrated in Section VI; A practical application in BAN the correlation coefficient between the in-phase and quadrature
system is provided in Section VII; Section VIII presents the waves with h = 1/(1 − η 2 ) and H = ηh. By using the linear
concluding remarks and projections for future research. transformation [36, Eq. (15.3.3)], the n-th moment of the η-µ
distribution is given, alternatively to [25, Eq. (21)] as,
II. P RELIMINARIES 
2−n n 1 H2

n n
E[R ] = (2µ)n/2 E 2 F1 , − ; + µ; 2 , (8)
A. The α-µ Fading Model 4 4 2 h
Let R > 0pfollows an α-µ distribution with α-root mean in which 2 F1 (·, ·; ·; ·) is the Gauss hypergeometric function
square r̂ , α E[Rα ], in which E[·] denotes the expectation [36, Eq. (15.1.1)], (a)b = Γ(a + b)/Γ(a) is the Pochhammer
operator, then its PDF is given as [24] symbol and
r̂
αµµ rαµ−1 rα
 
E=√ . (9)
fR (r) = exp −µ , (1) 2µ
Γ(µ) r̂αµ r̂α
in which Γ(·) is the gamma function [36, Eq. (6.1.1)], µ , D. Mellin Transform
E2 [Rα ]/V[Rα ] > 0 is related to the number of multipath The Mellin transform is an integral transform closely related
cluster, and V is the variance operator. Its n-th moment is to the n-th moment of positive random variates and is defined
obtained in closed form as as [37]
Γ(µ + n/α) n Z∞
E[Rn ] = A , (2)
Γ(µ) ∗
f (s) = M [f (t); s] = ts−1 f (t)dt, (10)
with the constant A defined as 0
r̂ provided the integral converges. The inverse Mellin transform
A= . (3)
µ1/α is given by
I
1
B. The κ-µ Fading Model f (x) = M −1 {f ∗ (s); x} = f ∗ (s)x−s ds (11)
2πj L
Let R > 0 be a fading
p envelope following a κ-µ distribution The n-th moment of a random variate R and the Mellin
with rms value r̂ , E[R2 ] then its PDF is given by [25] transform are related by f ∗ (s) = E[Rn−1 ], Thus, the inverse
1−µ  √ Mellin transform can be used as a tool to derive the PDF of
rµ
 2 
2(κµ) 2 r 2 κµr
fR (r) = exp − 2 Iµ−1 , (4) the random variate R.
exp(κµ) Kµ+1 K K
in which κ > 0 is the ratio of the total power of the dominant III. A NALYTICAL F ORMULATION
component by the total power of the scattered waves, µ , N
Q M
Q L
Q
E2 [R2 ]/V[R2 ] × (1 + 2κ)/(1 + κ)2 > 0 is related to cluster Let R = Xi Yi Zi be the result of the product of
i=1 i=1 i=1
of multipath and Iν (·) is the modified Bessel function of the any arbitrary number of independent positive random variates
first kind and order ν [36, Eq. (9.6.10)]. The n-th moment of and Xi , Yi , and Zi are distributed by the α-µ, κ-µ, and η-µ
the κ-µ distribution is given, alternatively to [25, Eq. (5)] by distributions, respectively. The n-th moment of R is obtained
using the linear transformation [36, Eq. (13.1.27)], as as
N M L
Γ(µ + n/2) n  n  Y Y Y
E[Rn ] = K 1 F1 − ; µ; −κµ (5) E[Rn ] = E[Xin ] E[Yin ] E[Zin ] (12)
Γ(µ) 2 i=1 i=1 i=1
in which 1 F1 (·; ·; ·) is the Kummer confluent hypergeometric with E[Xin ], E[Yin ]
and E[Zin ]
derived from (2), (5) and (8)
funcion [36, Eq. (13.1.2)], and the constant K is defined as respectively with appropriate subscript Xi , Yi and Zi .
r̂
K= p . (6)
µ(1 + κ) A. Fox H-Function Representation
The main purpose is to find the PDF of the random
C. The η-µ Fading Model variate R. Standard probability procedures dictate the use
of multiple integrals of the joint distribution of Xi , Yi , and
The PDF for the fading signalp R > 0 following an η-µ Zi . Alternatively, a closed-form expression can be readily
distribution with rms value r̂ , E[R2 ] is given as [25]
obtained through the use of the inverse Mellin transform.
3 √
2 2 −µ πhµ r2µ hr2 Hr2
   
Replacing (12) in (11) and then writing the hypergeometric
fR (r) = 1 exp − 2 Iµ− 12 , (7) functions as Mellin-Barnes contour type integrals using [38,
Γ(µ)H µ− 2 E 2µ+1 E E2
 3

Eq. (7.2.3.12)], the result can be interpreted as a multivariable B. Series Representation

Fox H-function as
Up to date, the multivariable Fox H-function is not readily
available in most mathematical packages such as Mathematica
fR (r) = CPDF H[x; (β, B); (δPDF , D); L] (13) or MatLab. Actually, not even the single variable version is im-
plemented. Therefore, particular implementations are required.
in which In [29] provides an efficient implementation for single variable
N
! L Fox H-function, evaluating the function using the Meijer G-
2 Y 1 Y Γ(1/2 + µZi ) function. A Python code can be found in [40], in which the
CPDF = ; (14)
r i=1
Γ(µXi ) i=1
Γ(2µZi ) authors claim to accurately evaluate the Fox H-function on
several variables up to four variables. Alternatively, a series
H[·; ·; ·; ·] is the Fox H-function [39]; L is an appropriate representation can be obtained by using the sum of residues
contour in the complex plane; x is a vector with M + L + 1 [41].
elements built as Note that the kernel of the Fox H-function is the product of
 several gamma functions. The residues of the gamma function
 κYi µYi if 1 ≤ i ≤ M is given as
HZ2 i−M



− 2 if M + 1 ≤ i ≤ M + L

xi = 4hZi−M (15) (−1)i
Res−i−a Γ(x + a)f (x) = f (−a − i) i ∈ N (20)
i!
 2
 r


if i = M + L + 1

P2 provided that f (x) has no pole on −a − i and Res denotes the
residue operation. From the Residue theorem, a contour inte-
with P defined as
gral can be evaluated through the summation of the residues

N

M

L
 around all the poles. It is important to remark that the contour
integrals related to the first M + L variables can be solved in
Y Y Y
P = AXj   KYj   EZj  ; (16)
j=1 j=1 j=1 closed form using [38, Eq. (7.2.3.12)]. The remaining integral
can be evaluated using (20) and [42, Theorem 1.2]. Applying
β = [02M +2L , (µXi )i=1:N , (µYi )i=1:M , (2µZi )i=1:L ] is a vec- these results, a single infinite summation for the PDF and CDF
tor with N + 3M + 3L elements and 0n denotes a sequence are given, respectively, as
of n zeros; δPDF = [(µYi )i=1:M , (µZi + 1/2)i=1:L , 0M +L ] is a ∞ N
vector with 2M + 2L elements; The parameter B is a matrix c1 X (−1)j X  r αXi (j+µXi )
fR (r) = αXi Gαij
with dimension 3M + 3L + N × M + L + 1 and is given as r j=0 j! i=1
P
a block matrix M  r 2(j+µYi )
X
  +2 Gκij (21)
IM +L 0M +L,1 P
i=1
 −IM 0M,L −1M,1  !
  L  r 2(j+2µZi )
0L,M −2I −1L,1 
X
 L  +2 Gηij ,
B=
 2/αX1  (17) i=1
P

 .. 

 0N,M +L . 
 and
 2/αXN 
∞ (−1)j N Gαij  r αXi (j+µXi )
0M +L,M +L 1M +L,1 P P
FR (r) = c1
j=0 j! i=1 j + µXi P
in which In is the identity matrix of order n, 0a,b is a PM Gκij  r  2(j+µYi )
zero matrix with dimension a × b and 1a,b is a matrix with + (22)
i=1 j + µYi P
dimension a × b consisting of ones; Finally, the parameter D L
!
is matrix with dimensions 2M + 2L × M + L + 1 defined as
P Gηij  r 2(j+2µZi )
+ ,
  i=1 j + 2µZi P
−IM +L 0M +L,1
D= . (18) in which
0M +L −1M +L,1
N
! M
! L
!
Y 1 Y 1 Y 1
Its CDF can be obtained directly from the definition by c1 = , (23)
writing the PDF as Mellin-Barnes contour integral and then i=1
Γ(µXi ) i=1
Γ(µYi ) i=1
Γ(2µ Zi )

change the order of integration. The result can be interpreted

as a multivariable Fox H-function given as
FR (r) = CCDF H[x; (β, B); (δCDF , D); L]
in which δCDF = [(µYi )i=1:M , (µZi + 1/2)i=1:L , 0M +L−1 , 1]
and CCDF = r/2 × CPDF .
and Gαij , Gκij and Gηij are given respectively by (24), (25),
and (26) at the top of the next page. Unfortunately, these
(19) series expansions have some restriction regarding a series of
combination among the α and µ parameters. Although, the
functions are defined in these points and can be evaluated
in the limit by adding a small random delta to one or more
 4

N  Y M
Y αXi  αXi  α
Xi

Gαij = Γ µXk − (j + µXi ) Γ µYk − (j + µXi ) 1 F1 (j + µXi ); µYk ; −κYk µYk
αXk 2 2
k=1,k6=i k=1
! (24)
L
Y  αXi  αXi αXi 1 1 HZ2 k
× Γ 2µZk − (j + µXi ) 2 F1 (j + µXi ), (j + µXi ) + ; µZk + ; 2
2 4 4 2 2 hZk
k=1
N   M M
Y 2 Y Y
Gκij = Γ µXk − (j + µYi ) Γ(µYk − µYi − j) 1 F1 (j + µYi ; µYk ; −κYk µYk )
αXk
k=1 k=1,k6=i k=1
! (25)
L
Y j + µYi j + µYi + 1 1 H2
× Γ(2µZk − µYi − j)2 F1 , ; µZk + ; 2Zk
2 2 2 hZk
k=1
N  YM
Y 2
Gηij = Γ µXk − (j + 2µZi ) Γ(µYk − 2µZi − j)1 F1 (j + 2µZi ; µYk ; −κYk µYk )
αXk
k=1 k=1
L L
! (26)
Y Y 2µZi + j 2µZi + j + 1 1 HZ2 k
× Γ(2µZk − 2µZi − j) 2 F1 , ; µZk + ; 2
2 2 2 hZk
k=1,k6=i k=1

parameters1 . We maintain that the series derived here are V. P ERFORMANCE M ETRICS FOR THE C ASCADED
convergent. The mathematical proof for this can be done by C HANNEL
following the standard procedure presented in [43, Section 1.7
and 2.9] Consider the multitap cascaded channel as defined in [29].
The equivalent
QN Qchannel between source and destination is
M QL
R = i=1 Xi i=1 Yi i=1 Zi , such that Xi , Yi and Zi are
IV. A SYMPTOTIC B EHAVIOR independent and arbitrarily distributed variates following the
α-µ, κ-µ, and η-µ distributions, respectively. Then, the SNR
It was established in [35] that the behavior of a system in is given as
high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimen depends exclusively Es R2
at the channel characteristic in the proximity of zero. There- ρ= , (29)
N0
fore, it is interesting to understand how the channel act near
R = 0. Taking the limit of (21) as r → 0, it results in in which Es is the energy per symbol and N0 is the noise
power. The SNR mean value is given as
N  r αXi µXi
c1 X Es
f˜R (r) = αXi Gαi0 ρ̄ = E[R2 ], (30)
r i=1
P N0
M L
!! (27)
and E[R2 ] can be obtained from (12). Through standard
X  r 2µYi X  r 4µZi
+2 Gκi0 + Gηi0 ,
P P probability procedures, the PDF and CDF for the SNR are
i=1 i=1
obtained as
in which c1 , Gαi0 , Gκi0 , Gηi0 are as defined previously. s
1 E[R2 ]
r 
Now, the CDF behavior near r = 0 is obtained by taking 2
ρ
fP (ρ) = fR E[R ] , and (31)
the limit of (22), which results in 2 ρρ̄ ρ̄

N M r 
X rαXi µXi Gαi0 X r2µYi Gκi0 ρ
F̃R (r) = c1 + FP (ρ) = FR E[R2 ] , (32)
µ P αXi µXi
i=1 Xi i=1
µYi P 2µYi ρ̄
L
! (28)
X r4µZi Gηi0 in which fH (h) and FH (h) are given, respectively, in (13)
+ . (alternatively by (21)) and (19) (or by (22)).
i=1
2µZi P 4µZi

It is noteworthy to mention that the above expressions may

A. Outage Probability
produce indeterminate values in the same manner as the
expressions for the PDF in (21) and the CDF in (22). This The outage probability is defined as the probability for the
can be circumvented by adding a small δ to the parameter µ. SNR to fall below a certain threshold, i.e.

1 These restrictions appears due to the possibility of the argument of the POUT , Pr[ρ < ρth ] = FP (ρth ) (33)
gamma function become a negative integer, please check the gamma functions
in (24),(25) and (26). in which FP (ρ) is given in (32).
 5

B. Outage Capacity N M L
6 5 8
The Shannon capacity of a transmitted signal with band- 2.0 6 1 6
width W over AWGN channel is defined as C(ρ) = 2 7 5
W log2 (1 + ρ). The outage capacity is the probability that 0 6 2
1.5 2 1 0
the capacity will fall below a certain threshold, i.e., Cout , 4 9 7

fR(r)
Pr[C(ρ) < Cth ]. It is easy to show that the outage capacity 1 4 1
depends on the CDF of the SNR as 1 1 7
1.0
0 7 3
 
COUT = FP 2Cth /W − 1 (34)
0.5
with FP given in (32).
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
C. Bit Error Probability r
In [44, Eq. (8.100)], a compact form for the instantaneous
Fig. 1. PDF for the product of several RVs for a wide range of parameters
bit error probability (BEP) for signal over AWGN is given as and r̂Xi = r̂Yi = r̂Zi = 1
PE (ρ) = Γ(b, aρ)/(2Γ(b)) in which a and b is related to the
modulation scheme2 . The average BEP can be obtained by
100
N M L
Z∞ 6 1 1
Γ(b, aρ) 10-1
3 2 0
PE = fP (ρ)dρ, (35)
2Γ(b) 10-2 0 4 2
0
10-3
Note: r Xi = r Yi = r Zi = 1
replacing fP (ρ) with (31) and using the result [45, Eq. fR(r)
10-4

(2.10.2.1], the average BEP is given as 10-5

∞ (−1)j N 10-6
c1 P α i

Γ b+ X
P
PE = 2 (µXi + j) 10-7
2Γ(b) j=0 j! i=1
αX
i (j+µ 10-8
Gαij  2
 2 Xi ) M
E[h ] P
× aρ̄P 2 + Γ (b+µYi +j) 10-9
j + µXi i=1 (36)
Asymptotic Behaviour
L 10-10
Gκij  E[h2 ] j+µYi P -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20
× 2 + Γ (b + 2µZi + j) r , (dB)
j + µYi aρ̄P i=1
!
Gηij  E[h2 ] j+2µZi Fig. 2. PDF for the product of several RVs for a wide range of parameters
× 2 .
j + 2µZi aρ̄P and r̂Xi = r̂Yi = r̂Zi = 1

VI. N UMERICAL R ESULTS

formulations. Interestingly, by increasing the number of in-
Figure 1 shows the PDF for the product of several random termediary channels, the mean SNR must rise, for instance, in
variates with different parameters. Note that, for some curves, order to keep a 10% outage probability the mean SNR should
the combination of the parameters would cause singularities increase around 6 dB when going from the pure α-µ channel
in the gamma functions which was circumvented by adding a to the first mixed channel.
small delta to the parameter µ. The parameters were chosen to
Fig 4 depicts the BER for an antipodal coherent BPSK mod-
demonstrate the numerous shapes that the product distribution
ulation scheme subjected to a keyhole channel with several
can present and without loss of generality r̂Xi = r̂Yi = r̂Zi =
nodes and non-identically distributed channels. The parameters
1. The parameters used to generate the curves are given in
used are given in Table I. Analogous to the outage probability,
Table I. Given some conditions on the parameters of the α-µ
increasing the number of intermediary channels increases the
(αµ ≤ 1), κ-µ (µ ≤ 1/2) and η-µ (µ ≤ 1/4) distribution, the
BER for the same mean SNR. Monte Carlo simulation results
PDF will have a non zero value at r = 0, interestingly, the
are used to demonstrate the correctness and accuracy of our
product PDF will have the same effect if any of the random
variates involved in the product also satisfy such conditions. In
figure 2, plots for the PDF of the product of α-µ, η-µ, and κ-
TABLE I
µ are shown along with their respective asymptotic behaviour. PARAMETERS USED TO GENERATE THE CURVES ON FIGURES 1 AND 4
The parameters used are those of Table I.
Figure 3 shows the outage probability for the product of i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

several random variables. As can be seen, results from Monte α Xi 6.4 6.5 5. 5.9 2.9 4.8
µ Xi 1.5 1.9 1.2 2.7 1.5 1.6
Carlo simulation presented in 3 and the exact expression
κYi 1.8 0.4 3.5 1.1 3.8 0.6 0.9 2.4 1.7
coincide with each other, showing the correctness of the
µYi 4. 3.2 2.8 3.3 1.9 2.3 3. 1.7 3.
2 The possible values for the parameters a and b can be obtained in [44, ηZi 0.54 0.48 0.688 0.145 0.576 0.14 0.198 0.259
Table 8.1] for various modulation and detection combinations. µZi 1.4 2.3 3.2 3.2 3.6 2. 2.3 2.4
 6

1
●
● Notes: αXi = 3, μXi = 1.5
●
●
●
●
● ●
Person 1 Person 2
● ●
● κYi = 2, μYi = 2
● ● ●
● ● ● ηZi = 0.25, μZi = 2.5
● ●
● ● ● ● ρth = 0 dB
● ● ●
●
● ● Node 3
Outage Probability

Channel 2
● ●
● Front-chest
N M L ●
3 0 0
●
●
●
Channel 1
Node 1
10-1 ● ●
3 2 3 ● ● Node 2 Front-centre-waist
3 4 6 ● ●
● Front-centre-waist
3 6 9
●
5 0 0 ● ●
● ●
5 2 3 A B
5 4 6
● 2m
Analytical
5 6 9
● Monte Carlo
10-2 ● ● Fig. 5. On-body transceivers on front-centre-waist of person 2 (node 1),
0 5 10 15 20 ● 25 30
ρ, (dB)
front-centre-waist of person 1 (node 2) and front-chest of person 1 (node 3).
Channel 1 represents the channel between nodes 1 and 2, channel 2 represents
the channel between nodes 2 and 3, and channel 3 represents the channel
Fig. 3. Outage Probability for the keyhole channel varying the number of between nodes 3 and 1.
nodes and i.i.d α-µ, κ-µ and η-µ channels.

TABLE II
PARAMETER ESTIMATES FOR THE α-µ, κ-µ AND η-µ FADING MODELS
N M L
●
● FITTED TO THE BAN MEASURED DATA
● ● 2 3 0
● ● ●
10-1 ● ● 2 3 2
●
● ● 3 4 4 α-µ κ-µ η-µ
● ●
● ● ● ● 5 5 5 α µ r̂ κ µ r̂ η µ r̂
Bit Error Proability

● ● Channel 1 4.06 0.49 1.11 2.91 0.72 1.02 0.01 1.41 1.11
● ●
10-2 ● Channel 2 5.62 0.45 1.09 7.05 0.57 1.01 0.01 2.35 1.08
●
● ● Channel 3 5.49 0.39 1.14 3.81 0.73 1.05 0.1 1.55 1.17
● ●
● ●
10-3 ●
● ●
● To facilitate the cascaded fading channel analysis, the data
●
Analytical sets were normalized to their respective local means prior to
● Monte Carlo

10-4
0 5
Fig. 4. BER for an antipodal coherent BPSK modulation scheme subject to
a multi-tap keyhole channel arbitrarily distributed.
formulations.
VII. P RACTICAL A PPLICATION
In this section, we demonstrate a practical application of
the product distributions proposed here by applying them to
some cascaded channels which arise as the result of multi-hop
communications in body area networks (BANs). The channel
measurements considered a three node BAN system (see Fig.
1) with a sample frequency of 198.4 Hz. BAN node 1 was
placed on the front-centre-waist of person 2 whilst nodes 2
and 3 were positioned on the front-centre-waist and front-
chest of person 1. The users were initially instructed to stand
motionless at positions A and B, separated by a distance of
2 m. Both test subjects were then instructed to walk around
randomly within a circle of radius 0.5 m from their starting
positions. It should be noted that the BAN-to-BAN links i.e.,
the links which exist between nodes 1 and 2, and nodes 3 and
1 are referred to as channel 1 and channel 3, respectively. The
link between nodes 2 and 3 (the on-body link) is referred to
as channel 2. A more detailed description of the measurement
environment (a reverberation chamber), the experimental set
up and scenario can be found in [46] and [47].
● ● the parameter estimation. An appropriate window size for the
●
10 15 20 25 30 extraction of the local mean signal was determined by visually
ρ (dB) inspecting the raw data and overlaying with the local mean
signal for differing window sizes. In this case, a smoothing
window of 75 samples was used. As an example of the data
fitting process, Figs. 2(a), (b) and (c) show the PDF of the
α-µ, κ-µ and η-µ fading models fitted to the BAN fading
data for channels 1, 2 and 3, respectively. A total of 10503
samples of the received signal power were obtained and used
for parameter estimation. All of the parameter estimates were
obtained using the lsqnonlin function available in the
optimization toolbox of Matlab along with the α-µ, κ-µ and
η-µ PDFs. To allow the reader to reproduce these plots, the
parameter estimates obtained are provided in Table I. From
Fig. 2, we observe that both the α-µ and κ-µ PDFs provide a
very good approximation to the measured data when compared
to the η-µ PDF.
We know that the received signal in cascaded fading chan-
nels can be treated as a product of random variables. Now,
utilizing the parameter estimates obtained in Table I, we apply
the PDFs of the product of three α-µ, three κ-µ and three η-
µ RVs to characterize the cascaded BAN fading data. It can
clearly be seen from Figs. 3(a), (b) and (c) that the PDF of
the product of three κ-µ variates provides the best fit to the
measured data when compared to the PDF of the product of
three α-µ and three η-µ RVs. Furthermore, we also observe
that the product of three α-µ variates provides a good fit at
the lower and the upper tails of the empirical PDF. However,
a significant disparity is noticed around the median where the
greatest number of fade levels occur.

Fig. 6. Empirical envelope PDF of (a) Channel 1 (b) Channel 2 and (c) Channel 3 compared to the α-µ, κ-µ and η-µ PDFs for the BAN channel measurements.
Fig. 7. Empirical envelope PDF of the cascaded BAN channels compared to the PDF of the product of (a) three α-µ RVs (b) three κ-µ RVs and (c) three
η-µ RVs.
VIII. C ONCLUSION
The PDF and CDF for the product of any number of random
variates taken from the distributions α-µ, κ-µ and η-µ were
obtained in closed form in terms of the multivariable Fox H-
function. Fairly simple and fast convergent power series ex-
pansion was also provided. These results find application in a
plethora of wireless communications process such as multihop
systems, radar communications, shadowing-multipath fading,
cascaded channel among others. As an application example,
performance metrics for the cascaded channel were provided.
Moreover, due to the high generality of the considered dis-
tributions, the results comprises those for the most common
fading distribution such as Rice, Hoyt, Nakagami-m, Rayleigh.
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