Shadowing, Multi-Path, and Line-of-Sight Effects: Are They Friends or Foes?

The objective of this paper is to address the following question: Are shadowing, multi-path, and line-of-sight (LoS) effects friends or foes? To this end, we examine shadowed k-μ fading channels as they characterize shadowing, multi-path and LoS components. Furthermore, we explore the impact of various types of shadowing. To answer the main question of this paper, we consider different wireless communication systems, including selection combining, maximal-ratio combining, equal-gain combining, and space-shift keying multiple-input multiple-output modulation. Extensive Monte-Carlo simulation results reveal that there is no single definitive answer. In other words, the aforementioned phenomena can either be advantageous or disad-vantageous depending on the type of the wireless communication system. However, it is important to note that these insights apply to both perfect channel state information (CSI) and imperfect CSI.