Spatial-Modulation-Based Techniques for Backscatter Communication Systems

A vision of a digital and connected world is now a global strategy for 5G Internet of Things (IoT), targeting for high-speed communication services with more capacity, lower latency, increased reliability, and availability. In this article, we assess the added value of backscatter communication in 5G IoT technology, by studying spatial modulation (SM)-based techniques, applied over a traditional multiple antenna backscatter communication system. Particularly, with backscatter, we fulfill the need for wireless self-powered devices, as one of the main characteristics of 5G IoT. Furthermore, with the use of multiple antennas, we apply sophisticated techniques that enhance the overall efficiency of the backscatter communication system. Initially, we study generalized SM (GSM) and its special case of SM, exploiting the antenna index as an additional source of information. With this technique, enhanced performance in terms of symbol error rate (SER) and spectral efficiency, is provided. In addition, we expand GSM in the time domain, by applying the Alamouti coding scheme (GSMA) in two out of the multiple available antennas. In this way, we further enhance the performance and succeed transmit diversity. Finally, analytical expressions regarding the pairwise error probability are derived and presented, while a diversity analysis is carried out for the proposed techniques. The simulation results along with theoretical bounds are provided, validating the enhanced performance of our study.