Multilevel codes (MLC) with multiple antennas over Rayleigh fading channels

A new multilevel code (MLC) structure with multiple antennas is presented, in which space diversity is achieved by using space-time block codes. Through performance analysis and computer simulation the asymptotic behavior of the new MLC scheme is provided, which is proportional to the product of the space diversity S and the minimum Hamming distance L' of component codes. When BCH codes are chosen as component codes and block partitioning (BP) with 8ASK modulation is adopted, the performances of the new MLC approach and the original MLC scheme are compared. The simulation results show that with the same bandwidth efficiency the new MLC scheme has a better power efficiency than the original MLC system without space diversity and the new system can achieve better trade-off between performance and complexity than the original MLC system without space diversity.