Theoretical performance of space-time block coded systems with channel estimation

Abstract

Orthogonal space-time block codes utilize transmit diversity and allow the receiver to have a simple maximum-likelihood decoder. Normally, the channel state information is not readily available at the receiver. Hence the channel estimation is necessary for coherent detection. In this paper, we present analytical bit error rate (BER) expressions as well as the tight Chernoff bound for orthogonal space-time block coded systems employing M-PSK modulations. The results show directly the BER dependence on the transmit diversity and the mean square error of the channel estimator. Simulation results show the accuracy of our BER predictions. © 2004 IEEE.