Performance analysis of layered space-time block code for future WLAN

The demand for high data rates and low implementation complexity form two of the prerequisites for future wireless local area networks. The V-BLAST architecture and the Alamouti space-time block code are two strong candidates for this particular implementation. The drawback of V-BLAST is its poor performance in correlated fading channels, and for Alamouti STBC, the spectral efficiency is generally poorer than V-BLAST. Trying to overcome these problems leads to a hybrid V-BLAST/Alamouti scheme. Instead of decoupling antennas for separate detection, each transmitted stream is treated as a layer and detected successively using the ordered successive interference cancellation algorithm. We investigate the frame error performance of this hybrid scheme with respect to three parameters: fading channel correlation; number of receive antennas used; spectral efficiency. The hybrid's error performance is compared to those of the V-BLAST and the Alamouti STBC schemes.