Space-time signal design for time-correlated Rayleigh fading channels

The existing construction of space-time codes or modulation has mainly focused on two ideal situations: either quasi-static or rapid fading channels. In this paper, we consider the design of robust space-time modulation for time-correlated Rayleigh fading channels. We show that the space-time signals of square size achieving full diversity in quasi-static fading channels can also achieve the full diversity in time-correlated fading channels irrespectively of the time correlation matrix. Moreover, we propose a space-time signal construction method by combining orthogonal designs with sphere packings. The simulation results show that our scheme outperforms the previously existing methods. For example, we observe a coding gain of about 1.5 dB over the conventional orthogonal design, about 2 dB over the parametric code, and about 4 dB over the cyclic code under certain fading conditions.