Space-time-Doppler block coding for correlated time-selective fading channels

Coping with time-selective fading channels is challenging but also rewarding, especially with multiantenna systems, where joint space-Doppler diversity and coding gains can be collected to enhance performance of wireless mobile links. These gains have not been quantified, and space-time coded systems maximizing joint space-Doppler benefits have not been designed. Based on a parsimonious basis expansion model for the underlying time-selective (and possibly correlated) channels, we quantify these gains in closed form. Furthermore, we develop space-time-Doppler coded systems that guarantee the maximum possible space-Doppler diversity, along with the largest coding gains within all linearly coded systems. Our three novel designs exploit knowledge of the maximum Doppler spread, and each offers a uniquely desirable tradeoff, including high spectral efficiency, low decoding complexity, and high performance. Our analytical results are confirmed by simulations and reveal the relative of merits of our three designs in comparison with an existing approach.