Threshold crossing rate and average non-fade duration in a Rayleigh-fading channel with multiple interferers

A sum of n incoherent Rayleigh-fading narrowband signals is described as a joint interference signal with Nakagami fading. Extending the theory of mobile fading for a single signal, expressions for the rate of crossing a prescribed C/I-ratio and the resulting average non-fade duration are derived. Results suggest that if the interference is due to many components, only the bandwidth of the fading of the desired signal plays an important role in these statistics. The results are useful for evaluation of packet radio networks paging systems and other interference-limited mobile radio systems.