Influence of antenna configurations on performance of STBC in urban microcells

Based on urban microcell channel measurements, the bit error rate performance of a space-time block code with four transmit antennas using various dual-branch receive antenna configurations, is evaluated. It is demonstrated that with realistic handset antennas, it is possible to achieve performance very close to that of the theoretical uncorrelated Rayleigh case, although proximity of operator tissue (e.g. head) will result in several decibels performance degradation.