Space-time coding techniques with bit-interleaved coded modulations for MIMO block-fading channels

TL;DR

This paper analyzes and optimizes space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation (ST-BICM) for MIMO block-fading channels, proposing new precoders and interleavers to maximize diversity and performance.

Contribution

It introduces dispersive nucleo algebraic (DNA) precoders and optimized interleavers for ST-BICM, enhancing performance across various MIMO configurations.

Findings

Proposed DNA precoders perform better than existing methods.

Optimized interleavers achieve high diversity with reduced complexity.

Frame error rate remains stable with increasing frame length when using turbo codes.

Abstract

The space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation (ST-BICM) is an efficient technique to obtain high diversity and coding gain on a block-fading MIMO channel. Its maximum-likelihood (ML) performance is computed under ideal interleaving conditions, which enables a global optimization taking into account channel coding. Thanks to a diversity upperbound derived from the Singleton bound, an appropriate choice of the time dimension of the space-time coding is possible, which maximizes diversity while minimizing complexity. Based on the analysis, an optimized interleaver and a set of linear precoders, called dispersive nucleo algebraic (DNA) precoders are proposed. The proposed precoders have good performance with respect to the state of the art and exist for any number of transmit antennas and any time dimension. With turbo codes, they exhibit a frame error rate which does not increase with frame length.