Optimization of Fast-Decodable Full-Rate STBC with Non-Vanishing Determinants

Full-rate STBC (space-time block codes) with non-vanishing determinants achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff but incur high decoding complexity. To permit fast decoding, Sezginer, Sari and Biglieri proposed an STBC structure with special QR decomposition characteristics. In this paper, we adopt a simplified form of this fast-decodable code structure and present a new way to optimize the code analytically. We show that the signal constellation topology (such as QAM, APSK, or PSK) has a critical impact on the existence of non-vanishing determinants of the full-rate STBC. In particular, we show for the first time that, in order for APSK-STBC to achieve non-vanishing determinant, an APSK constellation topology with constellation points lying on square grid and ring radius \sqrt{m^2+n^2} (m,n\emph{\emph{integers}}) needs to be used. For signal constellations with vanishing determinants, we present a methodology to analytically optimize the full-rate STBC at specific constellation dimension.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Transactions on Communication

Generalized Silver Codes

For an $n_t$ transmit, $n_r$ receive antenna system ($n_t \times n_r$ system), a {\it{full-rate}} space time block code (STBC) transmits $n_{min} = min(n_t,n_r)$ complex symbols per channel use. The well known Golden code is an example of a full-rate, full-diversity STBC for 2 transmit antennas. Its ML-decoding complexity is of the order of $M^{2.5}$ for square $M$-QAM. The Silver code for 2 transmit antennas has all the desirable properties of the Golden code except its coding gain, but offers lower ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^2$. Importantly, the slight loss in coding gain is negligible compared to the advantage it offers in terms of lowering the ML-decoding complexity. For higher number of transmit antennas, the best known codes are the Perfect codes, which are full-rate, full-diversity, information lossless codes (for $n_r \geq n_t$) but have a high ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^{n_tn_{min}}$ (for $n_r < n_t$, the punctured Perfect codes are considered). In this paper, a scheme to obtain full-rate STBCs for $2^a$ transmit antennas and any $n_r$ with reduced ML-decoding complexity of the order of $M^{n_t(n_{min}-(3/4))-0.5}$, is presented. The codes constructed are also information lossless for $n_r \geq n_t$, like the Perfect codes and allow higher mutual information than the comparable punctured Perfect codes for $n_r < n_t$. These codes are referred to as the {\it generalized Silver codes}, since they enjoy the same desirable properties as the comparable Perfect codes (except possibly the coding gain) with lower ML-decoding complexity, analogous to the Silver-Golden codes for 2 transmit antennas. Simulation results of the symbol error rates for 4 and 8 transmit antennas show that the generalized Silver codes match the punctured Perfect codes in error performance while offering lower ML-decoding complexity.Comment: Accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. This revised version has 30 pages, 7 figures and Section III has been completely revise

A fast-decodable code structure for linear dispersion codes

This paper proposes the design of a new family of fast-decodable, full-rank, flexible-rate linear dispersion codes (LDCs) for MIMO systems with arbitrary numbers of transmit and receive antennas. The codewords of LDCs can be expressed as a linear combination of certain dispersion matrices and, in this new family of LDCs, we propose to have orthogonal rows in as many dispersion matrices as possible. We show that, with the proposed code, the number of levels in the tree search and hence the complexity of the sphere decoder (SD) at the receiver can be substantially reduced. Monte Carlo computer simulation has shown that the LDCs with and without the orthogonal structure have nearly identical bit-error-rate (BER) performances. However, the complexity of the SD used for decoding the proposed family of LDCs is substantially reduced. © 2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Fast-Decodable Asymmetric Space-Time Codes from Division Algebras

Multiple-input double-output (MIDO) codes are important in the near-future wireless communications, where the portable end-user device is physically small and will typically contain at most two receive antennas. Especially tempting is the 4 x 2 channel due to its immediate applicability in the digital video broadcasting (DVB). Such channels optimally employ rate-two space-time (ST) codes consisting of (4 x 4) matrices. Unfortunately, such codes are in general very complex to decode, hence setting forth a call for constructions with reduced complexity. Recently, some reduced complexity constructions have been proposed, but they have mainly been based on different ad hoc methods and have resulted in isolated examples rather than in a more general class of codes. In this paper, it will be shown that a family of division algebra based MIDO codes will always result in at least 37.5% worst-case complexity reduction, while maintaining full diversity and, for the first time, the non-vanishing determinant (NVD) property. The reduction follows from the fact that, similarly to the Alamouti code, the codes will be subsets of matrix rings of the Hamiltonian quaternions, hence allowing simplified decoding. At the moment, such reductions are among the best known for rate-two MIDO codes. Several explicit constructions are presented and shown to have excellent performance through computer simulations.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure, submitted to IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, October 201

Block-Orthogonal Space-Time Code Structure and Its Impact on QRDM Decoding Complexity Reduction

Full-rate space time codes (STC) with rate = number of transmit antennas have high multiplexing gain, but high decoding complexity even when decoded using reduced-complexity decoders such as sphere or QRDM decoders. In this paper, we introduce a new code property of STC called block-orthogonal property, which can be exploited by QR-decomposition-based decoders to achieve significant decoding complexity reduction without performance loss. We show that such complexity reduction principle can benefit the existing algebraic codes such as Perfect and DjABBA codes due to their inherent (but previously undiscovered) block-orthogonal property. In addition, we construct and optimize new full-rate BOSTC (Block-Orthogonal STC) that further maximize the QRDM complexity reduction potential. Simulation results of bit error rate (BER) performance against decoding complexity show that the new BOSTC outperforms all previously known codes as long as the QRDM decoder operates in reduced-complexity mode, and the code exhibits a desirable complexity saturation property.Comment: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, Vol. 5, No. 8, December 201

Full Diversity Unitary Precoded Integer-Forcing

We consider a point-to-point flat-fading MIMO channel with channel state information known both at transmitter and receiver. At the transmitter side, a lattice coding scheme is employed at each antenna to map information symbols to independent lattice codewords drawn from the same codebook. Each lattice codeword is then multiplied by a unitary precoding matrix ${\bf P}$ and sent through the channel. At the receiver side, an integer-forcing (IF) linear receiver is employed. We denote this scheme as unitary precoded integer-forcing (UPIF). We show that UPIF can achieve full-diversity under a constraint based on the shortest vector of a lattice generated by the precoding matrix ${\bf P}$. This constraint and a simpler version of that provide design criteria for two types of full-diversity UPIF. Type I uses a unitary precoder that adapts at each channel realization. Type II uses a unitary precoder, which remains fixed for all channel realizations. We then verify our results by computer simulations in $2\times2$, and $4\times 4$ MIMO using different QAM constellations. We finally show that the proposed Type II UPIF outperform the MIMO precoding X-codes at high data rates.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to appear in IEEE-TW