The average fade duration (AFD) finds diverse applications in evaluation and design of wireless communication systems. This quantity provides a dynamic representation of the channel and presents the average period of time for which signal stays below a predetermined threshold level. In this paper, an infinite-series expression of AFD for dual selection combining (SC) diversity receiver, operating over correlated Rician fading in the presence of Rayleigh cochannel interference, is derived. The branch selection is based on desired signal power algorithm. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the proposed mathematical analysis and to examine the effects of fading severity and branch correlation on the concerned criterion.

Keywords: Selection combining, Rician fading, Cochannel interference, Average fade duration.