On the design of space-time codes

The design of space-time codes to achieve full spatial diversity over fading channels has largely been addressed by handcrafting example codes using computer search methods and only for small numbers of antennas. The lack of more general designs is in part due to the fact that the diversity advantage of a code is the minimum rank among the complex baseband differences between modulated code words, which is difficult to relate to traditional code designs over finite fields and rings. In this paper, we present general binary design criteria for PSK-modulated space-time codes. For linear BPSK/QPSK codes, the rank of (binary projections of) the unmodulated code words, as binary matrices over the binary field, is a sufficient design criterion: full binary rank guarantees full spatial diversity. This criterion accounts for much of what is currently known about PSK-modulated space-time codes. We develop new fundamental code constructions for both quasi-static and time-varying channels. These are perhaps the first general constructions-other than delay diversity schemes-that guarantee full spatial diversity for an arbitrary number of transmit antennas