Performance analysis of a narrowband two-signal receiver based on joint detection

We analyze the error probability of joint detection based on maximum likelihood estimation for simultaneous reception of two narrowband co-channel users. The main contribution herein is to present an exact derivation of the error probability as well as an union bound. Performance results are presented for a Rayleigh fading channel considering multiple antennas. It is shown that, for joint detection using antenna diversity, the performance degradation for both signals is negligible compared to the interference-free case, thus doubling the system capacity.