Improved space-time convolutional codes for quasi-static slow fading channels

Space-time convolutional codes, that provide maximum diversity and coding gain, are produced for cases with PSK modulation and various numbers of states and antennas. The codes are found using a new approach introduced previously in a companion paper. The new approach provides an efficient method that allows a search for optimum codes for many practical problems. The new approach also provides a simple method for augmenting the criteria of maximum diversity and coding gain with a new measure which is shown to be extremely useful for evaluating code performance without extensive simulations. To validate the approach, an extensive set of simulation results are presented comparing the codes designed here to many other previously proposed space-time convolutional codes. The comparisons, given in terms of frame error rate (FER), indicate that our new method provides codes which yield excellent performance. The approach is especially useful for finding a handful of good codes. Selection among these codes can be made with a limited number of simulations for FER.