Joint source and space-time block coding for MIMO video communications

The problem of efficient video communications over MIMO wireless systems is of great significance, due to the high capacity of the multiple antenna system. The high data rates provided by the MIMO system can be traded off with diversity gain by using different channel coding schemes. Also, by using different video source coding methods, high compression gain can be traded off with the error resilience gain. One should jointly consider source coding and channel coding when designing a MIMO wireless video system. However, little is known so far about what combinations of channel coding and source coding methods have the best overall performance in a MIMO system. By comparing the performances of several different typical combinations through both theoretical and simulation studies, we show that no single combination is the best for the entire range of channel conditions, rather different combinations may be best for a sub-range.