Q-Function

Vahid Meghdadi
Avril 2008

The Q-function is defined as :

Z ∞
1 2
Q(z) = p(X ≥ z) = √ e−x /2 dx
z 2π
This function is widely used in BER calculation. There is some bounds that
permits us not to calculate the integral. For x > 0:
 
1 1 2 1 2
√ 1 − 2 e−x /2 < Q(x) < √ e−x /2
x 2π x x 2π

One of the good approximations of Q-function is given below (see simulation

of communication systems by Michel C. Jeruchim):
Z ∞
1 2
Q(x) = 1/2
e−t /2 dt
(2π)
x 
1 1 2
≈ 2 1/2 1/2
e−x /2
(1 − a)x + a(x + b) (2π)

where a = 1/π and b = 2π.

There is also another way to calculate the integral with numerical methods.
So, the alternate Q-Function is proposed by Craig as:
π/2
−z 2
Z  
1
Q(z) = exp dφ, z>0
π 0 2 sin2 φ
Sometimes the Q-function is described as a function of error function erf,
which is defined over [0, ∞) as:
Z x
2 2
erf(x) := √ e−y dy
π 0
with erf(0) = 0 and erf(∞) = 1. So
 
1 1 x
Q(x) = − erf √
2 2 2

1
 √
erf(x) = 1 − 2Q( 2x)
There is also the complementary error function erfc(x) which is defined as
erfc(x) = 1 − erf(x). With the use of erfc we can write:
 
1 x
Q(x) = erfc √
2 2

The erfc(x) can be approximated by the following series:

2
e−x
 
1 1.3 1.3.5
erfc(x) = √ 1− 2
+ 2 4 − 3 6 + ...
x π 2x 2 x 2 x

The following figure presents the Q-function and its lower and higher bounds.
As it can be seen the bounds are quite tight for x > 2.

2
10
Upper bound
1
Exact
10 Lower bound

0
10

−1
10

−2
10

−3
10

−4
10

−5
10

−6
10

−7
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Figure 1: Q-function and its bounds