Iterative semi-blind equalization of space time block coded systems

Space time block coding (STBC) is often used as it is able to exploit the spatial diversity of multiple antenna systems to improve the performance of such systems. While the main advantage of using STBC lies in the simplicity of the decoder, the special structure of STBCs can also be exploited for other purposes such as channel equalization. In this paper we discuss the channel equalization problem of STBC systems. Due to the relatively lower complexity of direct equalizers, we choose to deal with such equalizers. An iterative semi-blind direct equalization algorithm is proposed and is shown to have superior performance when compared with several algorithms.