Optimally Interleaved Signals for SFN

This paper focuses on how designing transmit signals improves performance of single frequency networks (SFNs), employing multiple distributed transmit antennas. Considering the effect of multipath fading, pairwise error probability conditioned on shadowing is derived to show that the achievable diversity order of SFNs increases as the number of resolvable channel taps between transmit and receive antennas increases. One transmit signal based on interleaved-partition subcarrier grouping is proposed to obtain the achievable diversity order. Further, we show that different interleaving methods result in different performance due to asynchronous delays caused by unequal distances between distributed transmit antennas and mobile receivers. To optimize the proposed transmit signal, one interleaving scheme, establishing a tradeoff between mobile receivers' location and performance, is introduced in terms of the asynchronous delays. Simulation results are presented in a representative scenario to demonstrate the performance gains offered by the proposed optimum transmit signal. The proposed scheme does not introduce any changes at the mobile receivers.