Multi-amplitude differential space-time block coding scheme for square/non-square code matrix in MIMO systems

Differential space-time coding (DSTC) technique has become a good choice when channel estimations are difficult to obtain in multiple antennas system. On the basis of analyzing the existing DSTC schemes, by introducing multi-level quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) and matrix transform method, we develop a multi-amplitude differential space-time block coding (STBC) scheme for square or non-square code matrix in MIMO systems, and give the derivation of calculation formulae of the coding advantage in detail. The developed scheme can effectively avoid the performance loss of conventional DSTC schemes based on PSK modulation (i.e. single amplitude DSTC) in high spectrum efficiency. It can be applied to non-square code matrix case, and thus overcomes the shortcoming that existing DSTC schemes are only suitable for square code matrix. Compared with single amplitude DSTC schemes, our scheme has higher spectrum efficiency by carrying information not only on phases but also on amplitudes. Moreover, our scheme has linear decoding complexity, higher coding advantage, and higher code rate for more than two antennas. The simulations results show that the proposed scheme can provide lower BER than the existing single amplitude differential STBC schemes for both square and non-square code matrices. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER.