Improved Design Criterion for Space-Frequency Trellis Codes over MIMO-OFDM Systems

In this paper, we discuss the design problem and the robustness of space-frequency trellis codes (SFTCs) for multiple input multiple output, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. We find that the channel constructed by the consecutive subcarriers of an OFDM block is a correlated fading channel with the regular correlation function of the number and time delay of the multipaths. By introducing the first-order auto-regressive model, we decompose the correlated fading channel into two independent components: a slow fading channel and a fast fading channel. Therefore, the design problem of SFTCs is converted into the joint design in both slow fading and fast fading channels. We present an improved design criterion for SFTCs. We also show that the SFTCs designed according to our criterion are robust against the multipath time delays. Simulation results are provided to confirm our theoretic analysis.