An improved space-time block code for two transmit antennas and three time slots

Space-time block codes offer transmit diversity in Multiple Input Multiple Output wireless systems. Orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes have been developed for improving the performance of wireless communication systems. Three time slot-two transmit antenna systems are of interest in many practical situations in Long Term Evolution-Advanced 4G standard. Quasi-orthogonal and hybrid designs are available in literature. This paper proposes a new space-time block code for three time slot-two transmit antenna design problem for implementation in Single Carrier FDE which is the uplink mode in 4G LTE-Advanced. The encoding along with the frequency domain decoding is presented with extensive simulation results to back the superiority of the new space-time block code developed. Our improved code offers lower bit error rate at a code rate of one. The zero-forcing equalization in frequency domain makes this new code suitable for SC-FDE systems.