Performance comparison of MIMO space-time block coded MC-CDMA systems in Nakagami-m fading channel

Multicarrier modulations such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems are of great interest for future mobile communications. In order to provide transmit and receive diversity, we consider MC-CDMA systems equipped with multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas (MIMO) where some space-time (ST) coded transmission schemes are applied. In this paper, we will study the performance of MC-CDMA systems with different coding rates in Nakagami-m fading channels which have been found to be a very good fitting for the mobile radio channel. In case of two transmitting antennas, we will use Alamouti codes while in case of 3 or 4 antennas, we will use codes provided by Vucetic and Ganesan. We will also try to find the optimum number of transmitting antennas in different channel conditions.