Layered space-time structures with low-density parity-check and convolutional codes as constituent codes

Information theoretic studies show that a multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) system can achieve a much higher channel capacity than a single‐antenna system. The layered space‐time (LST) structures are able to attain a tight lower bound on the channel capacity. In this paper, three different LST architectures with low‐density parity‐check (LDPC) and convolutional constituent codes are investigated. An improved iterative parallel interference cancellation (PIC) method is applied, which provides a significant performance gain compared to the standard PIC. These three LST schemes are compared for various system configurations characterised by the number of transmit and receive antennas, fading types, detection techniques and constituent codes. It is shown that the PIC detector with statistical combining has a complexity of the standard PIC and achieves the minimum mean square error (MMSE) performance. Copyright © 2005 AEIT.