Cooperative diversity scheme using virtual MIMO antenna array in a LTE-A uplink system

Abstract

This paper proposes an effective cooperative communication scheme to obtain high reliability in a long-term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) uplink system. The proposed scheme constitutes the virtual multiple input multiple output antenna array by the cooperative communication scheme and suggests the transmission signal configuration applying spatial phase coding (SPC) with the modified hierarchical modulation. In the proposed transmission signal configuration, high diversity gain is provided by the SPC scheme and the data rate is improved by modified hierarchical modulation. The modified hierarchical modulation transforms the constellation of the conventional hierarchical-modulated signal in order to minimize the influence by noise in the proposed scheme. In the LTE-A uplink system, the proposed scheme is effective to a user equipment (UE) based on single carrier-frequency division multiple access because UE using only single antenna can obtain high reliability without additional antennas.