Space-time trellis code design based on super QOSTBC with minimum decoding complexity

We propose a new family of space-time trellis codes, which are constructed by combining a super set of QOSTBC with minimum decoding complexity and an outer MTCM encoder. A systematic set-partitioning method for QAM constellations is given. The proposed scheme can be used for systems with four and more than four transmit antennas. Furthermore, its decoding complexity is low because branch metric calculations can be done in a symbol-wise way. Several design examples are presented. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has a comparable performance as super quasi-orthogonal space-time trellis codes presented by Jafarkhani and Hassanpour while providing a lower decoding complexity.