Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants

A universal space-time architecture for multiple-antenna aided systems

In this tutorial, we first review the family of conventional multiple-antenna techniques, and then we provide a general overview of the recent concept of the powerful Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) family based on a universal Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK) philosophy. When appropriately configured, the proposed STSK scheme has the potential of outperforming conventional MIMO arrangements

Dispensing with channel estimation: differentially modulated cooperative wireless communications

As a benefit of bypassing the potentially excessive complexity and yet inaccurate channel estimation, differentially encoded modulation in conjunction with low-complexity noncoherent detection constitutes a viable candidate for user-cooperative systems, where estimating all the links by the relays is unrealistic. In order to stimulate further research on differentially modulated cooperative systems, a number of fundamental challenges encountered in their practical implementations are addressed, including the time-variant-channel-induced performance erosion, flexible cooperative protocol designs, resource allocation as well as its high-spectral-efficiency transceiver design. Our investigations demonstrate the quantitative benefits of cooperative wireless networks both from a pure capacity perspective as well as from a practical system design perspective

Generalized space-time shift keying designed for flexible diversity-, multiplexing- and complexity-tradeoffs

In this paper, motivated by the recent concept of Spatial Modulation (SM), we propose a novel Generalized Space-Time Shift Keying (G-STSK) architecture, which acts as a unified Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) framework. More specifically, our G-STSK scheme is based on the rationale that P out of Q dispersion matrices are selected and linearly combined in conjunction with the classic PSK/QAM modulation, where activating P out of Q dispersion matrices provides an implicit means of conveying information bits in addition to the classic modem. Due to its substantial flexibility, our G-STSK framework includes diverse MIMO arrangements, such as SM, Space-Shift Keying (SSK), Linear Dispersion Codes (LDCs), Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) and Bell Lab’s Layered Space-Time (BLAST) scheme. Hence it has the potential of subsuming all of them, when flexibly adapting a set of system parameters. Moreover, we also derive the Discrete-input Continuous-output Memoryless Channel (DCMC) capacity for our G-STSK scheme, which serves as the unified capacity limit, hence quantifying the capacity of the class of MIMO arrangements. Furthermore, EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart analysis is used for designing our G-STSK scheme and for characterizing its iterative decoding convergence