On the performance of golden space-time trellis coded modulation over MIMO block fading channels

The Golden space-time trellis coded modulation (GST-TCM) scheme was proposed for a high rate 2 times 2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system over slow fading channels. In this letter, we present the performance analysis of GST-TCM over block fading channels, where the channel matrix is constant over a fraction of the codeword length and varies from one fraction to another, independently. In practice, it is not useful to design such codes for specific block fading channel parameters and a robust solution is preferable. We then show both analytically and by simulation that the GST-TCM designed for slow fading channels are indeed robust to all block fading channel conditions.