Single-Carrier Space-Frequency Block Coding: Performance Evaluation

In this paper we investigate the performance of single-carrier space-frequency block coding (SC-SFBC), a new diversity technique compatible with single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA). SC-FDMA has been adopted as a possible air interface for future wireless networks as it combines the advantages of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and the low envelope variation properties of single carrier (SC) transmission. Existing transmit antenna diversity techniques as space-time block coding (STBC) and space-frequency block coding (SFBC) are incompatible either with the system constraints or with the low envelope variations of SC-FDMA. We describe the new proposed SC-SFBC technique and we prove its good performance both in terms of peak to average power ratio (PAPR) and bit error rate (BER) performance on frequency selective multiple input multiple output channel. Our new scheme is compared to existing open-loop transmit antenna selection, cyclic delay diversity (CDD), STBC and classical SFBC schemes.