Upper Bounds on the BER Performance of MTCM-STBC Schemes over Shadowed Rician Fading Channels

M Uysal,C N Georghiades

doi:10.1155/s1110865704311078

Abstract

Space-time block coding (STBC) provides substantial diversity advantages with a low decoding complexity. However, these codes are not designed to achieve coding gains. Outer codes should be concatenated with STBC to provide additional coding gain. In this paper, we analyze the performance of concatenated trellis-coded STBC schemes over shadowed Rician frequency-flat fading channels. We derive an exact pairwise error probability (PEP) expression that reveals the dominant factors affecting performance. Based on the derived PEP, in conjunction with the transfer function technique, we also present upper bounds on the bit error rate (BER), which are further shown to be tight through a Monte-Carlo simulation study.

Highlights

Space-time trellis coding was introduced in [1] as an effective transmit diversity technique to combat fading
Using the classical transfer function technique based on the exact pairwise error probability (PEP), we obtain upper bounds on bit error rate (BER) performance, which are further verified through simulation
We analyzed the performance of trellis-coded Space-time block coding (STBC) schemes over shadowed Rician fading channels

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Space-time trellis coding was introduced in [1] as an effective transmit diversity technique to combat fading. These codes were designed to achieve maximum diversity gain. STBC generalizes Alamouti’s scheme to an arbitrary number of transmit antennas and is able to provide the full diversity promised by the transmit and receive antennas These codes are not designed to achieve a coding gain. Based on the derived PEP, we discuss the selection criteria for trellis codes which should be used with space-time codes for optimal performance and compare them with the classical selection criteria for trellis codes over fading channels without transmitter diversity. Analytical performance results are presented for two example trellis codes, which are further confirmed through MonteCarlo simulation

SYSTEM MODEL

DERIVATION OF EXACT PEP

EXAMPLES

CONCLUSION