Scalable layered space-time codes for wireless communications: performance analysis and design criteria

Dual antenna-array systems provide very high capacity compared to single antenna systems in a Rayleigh fading environment. If the transmitter does not have the channel state information, to utilize this high capacity, space-time codes must be employed. The diagonally-layered space-time (DLST) architecture is a structure that is capable of providing a high data rate for a low decoding complexity. We analyze the performance of DLST codes with a hard decision-feedback decoder and a soft decision-feedback decoder with iterative decoding. We analyze the error probability performance and propose the criteria for designing the constituent codes.