On the performance of space-time block codes

Space-time block codes (STBC), that have been introduced by S.M. Alamouti (IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication, vol.16, no.8, p.1451-8, 1998) and V. (IEEE-info, vol.45, 1999), are now considered in the current 3GPP standard as one method to achieve spatial diversity. While the performance of space-time block codes has been subject of extensive research (see Parkvall, S. et al, 2000; Correia, A. et al., 1999; Tharokh et al., 1999), the impact of channel estimation errors and closed loop power control on the performance of STBC remain open for further research. The performance of STBC with imperfect channel estimates and closed loop power control is analyzed for flat fading channels as well as for multipath channels.