Space-Time FSK: An Implicit Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation Scheme

We develop in this paper an Alamouti-type space- time (ST) block code that employs orthogonal M-ary FSK (MFSK) modulation. It is demonstrated that every transmitted symbol in the proposed ST-MFSK scheme can be treated as an implicit pilot symbol, and consequently the receiver can attain close to ideal coherent bit-error performance even in the absence of an explicit channel sounding signal. In addition to employing the popular block-wise static fading model for performance evaluation, we also study the implications of a more realistic fading model whereby the fading gains are allowed to vary from one subinterval to another within a ST code block. It was discovered that an iterative channel estimation strategy has to be adopted to mitigate the cross-talk associated with this refined channel model. The iterative channel estimator, in conjunction with a companion minimum mean square error detector, or a companion maximum likelihood detector, enable the receiver to obtain a bit-error performance similar to that obtained under the block-wise static fading model. In comparison with differential ST-MPSK, the two approaches yield similar error performance in a static fading environment. However, the error performance of differential ST-MPSK deteriorates rapidly as the fade rate increases whereas the performance of ST-MFSK is almost independent of the fade rate. In terms of implementation complexity and delay of the receiver, the proposed coherent ST- MFSK scheme and differential ST-MPSK are very similar, as both approaches employ digital filters of similar lengths. The findings in this paper suggest that despite its larger bandwidth requirement, ST-MFSK is a very attractive alternative space-time signaling format.