Comparison of code design requirements for single- and multi-carrier transmission over frequency-selective MIMO channel

Point-to-point transmission over multiple-input/multiple-output channels with intersymbol interference is considered. Two different equalization strategies - single-carrier transmission with spatial/temporal decision-feedback equalization and multicarrier transmission with V-BLAST in each carrier - and the respective requirements on channel coding are studied and compared. Via capacity arguments, it is shown that bit-inter-leaved coded modulation is not well suited for the situations at hand. This holds in particular if channel coding is used in combination with rate loading, i.e., non-uniform rate distribution over the carriers. Approaches to overcome this problem are discussed