Analysis of satellite WCDMA systems applying space-time codes with imperfect channel estimation

In this paper, we investigate a satellite WCDMA system combined with space-time code. Generally, space-time codes have been hardly considered in satellite systems because we assume a prevailed line of sight (LOS) condition. However, in a mobile satellite communication channel, space-time codes could play an important role to provide economic and high quality services. We applied Alamouti's space time transmit diversity (STTD) scheme to the satellite WCDMA system, and extensively demonstrate the simulation results on a mobile satellite channel. The simulation results investigated in this paper reveal that the STTD scheme in mobile satellite system could provide much better performance to the one in terrestrial system in reasonable range of signal to noise ratio.