A Noncoherent Detection Scheme for Space-Time Block Codes

A differential detection transmit diversity method is presented. The transmission scheme exploits the diversity given by multiple transmit antennas when neither the transmitter nor the receiver has access to channel state information. Multiple transmit antenna differential encoding/decoding schemes are explicitly constructed based on generalized orthogonal designs. The detection scheme can use equal energy constellations and encoding is simple. At the receiver, decoding is achieved with low decoding complexity. The transmission provides full spatial diversity and requires no channel state side information at the receiver. The scheme can be thought of as the extension of differential detection schemes like DPSK to multiple transmit antennas.