RCPC-Encoded V-BLAST MIMO with MMSE-Based Detection

A Rate-Compatible Punctured Convolutional (RCPC)-encoded Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) MIMO system to provide a robust wireless communication link is proposed. The V-BLAST detection is based on Minimum Mean-Squared Error (MMSE) criterion, to alleviate the noise enhancement commonly found in the original V-BLAST scheme based on Zero Forcing criterion. Different code rates and transmit powers are allocated to data streams emitted from the multiple transmit antennas, according to the attenuation levels of the subchannels. This scheme is efficient in terms of transmit power and bandwidth usage, as the data stream entering a destructive subchannel is given low transmit power and high code rate. Simulations show that the proposed system can attain good performance at a reasonably low Eb/No.