The differential encoding/decoding setup introduced by Kiran et al,
Oggier-Hassibi and Jing-Jafarkhani for wireless relay networks that use
codebooks consisting of unitary matrices is extended to allow codebooks
consisting of scaled unitary matrices. For such codebooks to be usable in the
Jing-Hassibi protocol for cooperative diversity, the conditions involving the
relay matrices and the codebook that need to be satisfied are identified. Using
the algebraic framework of extended Clifford algebras, a new class of
Distributed Differential Space-Time Codes satisfying these conditions for power
of two number of relays and also achieving full cooperative diversity with a
low complexity sub-optimal receiver is proposed. Simulation results indicate
that the proposed codes outperform both the cyclic codes as well as the
circulant codes. Furthermore, these codes can also be applied as Differential
Space-Time codes for non-coherent communication in classical point to point
multiple antenna systems.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. 10 pages,
5 figure