Space-time block codes for virtual antenna arrays

A novel telecommunication system, termed virtual antenna arrays, was previously presented that allows the application of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) capacity enhancement techniques to mobile terminals with a limited number of antenna elements. This paper introduces a novel approach extending the possible applicability of the space-time block codes (STBC) to such virtual antenna arrays. The main idea is to emulate the (2 transmit antennas, 2 receive antennas) diversity scheme developed by Alamouti (1998). This approach successfully deals with the problem of just one receiving antenna in a handset. Simulations results indicate an improvement in error performance over the simple (2,1) Alamouti scheme.