Space-time block codes versus space-time trellis codes

Abstract

Two outstanding examples of transmit diversity schemes for the multiple-antenna flat-fading channel are space-time block coding (STBC) and space-time trellis coding (STTC). We compare the performance of STBC and STTC in terms of the frame error rate keeping the transmit power, spectral efficiency and number of trellis states fixed. We discover that a simple concatenation of space-time block codes with traditional AWGN (additive white Gaussian noise) trellis codes outperforms some of the best known space-time trellis codes at SNRs (signal to noise ratios) of interest. Our result holds for a small number of trellis states with one or two receive antennas, and is useful for the design and implementation of multiple-antenna wireless systems.