Diversity scheme

In telecommunications, a diversity scheme refers to a method for improving the reliability of a message signal by using two or more communication channels with different characteristics.

Diversity is mainly used in radio communication and is a common technique for combatting fading and co-channel interference and avoiding error bursts.

It is based on the fact that individual channels experience fades and interference at different, random times, i.e., they are at least partly independent.

Alternatively, a redundant forward error correction code may be added and different parts of the message transmitted over different channels.

With this approach, always the faster of the redundant channels "wins", yielding significant performance improvements especially in wireless applications.