Space-time block codes using square Hankel data blocks

Since the design by S.M. Alamouti (see IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol.16, no.8, p.1451-8, October 1998) of a simple orthogonal space-time block code that achieves the same diversity order as maximal-ratio receiver combining, there has been a flurry of work to produce similar codes. While Alamouti's scheme cannot be extended to more than two antennas for complex modulation, other non-orthogonal codes have been developed. In this paper we analyze a space-time block code formed using Hankel data blocks that is good for any number of antennas. Through analysis and computer simulation we show that this scheme provides the same signal-to-noise ratio for each recovered symbol but fails to reach, on average, the gain reached by Alamouti's scheme. The methods used in this paper serve as an instructive example of how to look at similar coding schemes to see their utility in the area of space-time coding.