Successive-Coded Spatial Shift Keying Modulation for MIMO Wireless Communications

Spatial domain modulation employs spatial degree of freedom to convey information bits. Traditional spatial domain modulation schemes include spatial modulation, spatial shift keying (SSK), and variations of these two schemes. To fully make use of the spatial degree of freedom and improve the achievable data rate of traditional spatial domain modulation schemes, we propose a successive-coded SSK (SC-SSK) modulation scheme. The core of the proposed SC-SSK scheme is a multiple step coded modulation strategy, in which different information bits are mapped to the designed pattern in each step. The constellation of the transmit signals is designed. A QR decomposition based successive detection algorithm is proposed for this particular coded modulation strategy. The achievable rate, the error rate performance, and the computational complexity of the proposed SC-SSK scheme are analyzed in detail. Simulations are carried out to compare the proposed the SC-SSK scheme with the reference spatial domain modulation schemes, and reveal the advantages of the proposed SC-SSK scheme.