Abstract

With applications such as video conferencing, extensive web browsing and live video streaming, future wireless systems become extremely demanding in terms of high data rates and improved signal quality. In this thesis the performance of a space-time spreading transmit diversity scheme is examined over a frequency-flat Nakagami- m fading channel. The Nakagami- m channel model is considered as it is well known for modeling signal fading conditions ranging from severe to moderate, to light fading or no fading, through its parameter m. We also propose in this thesis a coded transmit diversity scheme which is based on a combination of a convolutional code with a space-time transmit diversity scheme that uses direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) for multiuser access. Our focus will be on the uplink of the communication system. The space-time scheme employs N = 2 and N r antennas at the mobile station (MS) side and at the base station (BS) side respectively. DS-CDMA is used to support many users and a linear decorrelator detector is used to combat the effect of multiuser interference. We study the performance of both the uncoded and coded transmit diversity schemes over slow fading and fast fading channels. In all cases, the investigations start by determining the probability density function (PDF) of the signal to interference and noise ratio at the output of the space-time combiner at the BS receiver side. Using this PDF we derive a closed-form (or an approximation) expression for the bit error rate (BER) of the system under consideration. The accuracy of the PDF and BER expressions are verified when compared to simulation results for different values of the fading figure m and for different combinations of transmit and receive antennas. In the case of the coded space-time transmit diversity scheme, the pairwise error probability and the corresponding BER upper bounds are obtained for fast and slow fading channels. The derived error bounds, when compared to system simulations, are shown to be tight at high signal-to-noise ratios. Furthermore, our analytical results explicitly show the achieved system diversity in terms of the number of transmit and receive antennas and the fading figure m. When the coded space-time scheme is considered, its diversity is shown to be a function of the minimum free distance d free of the convolutional code used. Furthermore we show that the diversity of the different schemes considered is always independent of the system load