Single-block differential transmit scheme for broadband wireless MIMO-OFDM systems

In frequency-selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel, differential space-time-frequency (DSTF) modulations are known as practical alternatives that are capable of exploiting the available spatial and frequency diversities without the requirement of multichannel estimation at the receiver. However, the encoding nature of the DSTF schemes that expand several OFDM symbol periods makes the DSTF schemes susceptible to fast-changing channel conditions. In this paper, we propose a differential scheme for MIMO-OFDM systems that is able to differentially encode signal within two OFDM symbol periods, and the proposed scheme transmits the differentially encoded signal within one OFDM block. The scheme not only reduces encoding and decoding delay but also relaxes the restriction on channel assumption. The successful differential decoding of the proposed scheme depends on the assumption that the fading channels keep constant over two OFDM symbol periods rather than multiple of them as required in the existing DSTF schemes. We also provide pairwise error probability analysis and quantify the performance criteria in terms of diversity and coding advantages. The design criteria reveal that the existing diagonal cyclic codes can be applied to achieve full diversity. Performance simulations under various channel conditions show that our proposed scheme yields superior performance to previously proposed differential schemes.