Time Reversal Space-Time Block Coding vs. Transmit Delay Diversity — A comparison based on a GSM-like system

Abstract In [1], a new transmit diversity scheme for channels with intersymbol interference was introduced. The scheme is a generalization of the space-time block coding introduced by Alamouti in [3] to channels with intersymbol interference. The scheme uses two transmit and one receive antenna and achieves the same diversity benefit at the user terminal as can be achieved by using one transmit and two receive antennas. The scheme thus achieves the full available diversity benefit. In this paper we evaluate the performance of this scheme by applying it to a GSM-like system and comparing it with a delay diversity scheme. The method proposed in [1] has better performance than transmit delay diversity. Further, as the memory in the overall channel is not increased, the complexity of the equalizer is not increased. This is especially valuable if the receiver uses a maximum likelihood sequence estimator (MSLE). The complexity of the receiver will then be significantly reduced with respect to the delay diversity scheme.