Performance Evaluation at the System Level of Reconfigurable Space-Time Coding Techniques for HSDPA

A reconfigurable space-time coding technique is investigated, for a high-speed downlink packet access multiple-antenna network, which combats the effects of antenna correlation. Reconfigurability is achieved at the link level by introducing a linear precoder in a space-time block coded system. The technique assumes knowledge of the long-term characteristics of the channel, namely the channel correlation matrix at the transmitter. The benefits of the proposed reconfigurable technique as compared to the conventional non-reconfigurable versions are evaluated via system-level simulations. In order to characterize the system-level performance accurately and, at the same time, use a feasible approach in terms of computational complexity, a suitable link-to-system interface has been developed. The average system throughput and the number of satisfied users are the performance metrics of interest. Simulation results demonstrate the performance enhancements achieved by the application of reconfigurable techniques as compared to their conventional counterparts.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou, Zografou, Athens, 15773, Greece

   Kostas Peppas, Tareq Al-Gizawi & Dimitrios I. Axiotis

2. Wireless Research, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, The Quadrant, Stonehill Green, Swindon, SN5 7DJ, UK

   Angeliki Alexiou

3. Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos," Ag. Paraskevi, Athens, 15310, Greece

   Fotis Lazarakis

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kostas Peppas.

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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