A new non-coherent MIMO scheme: Matrix Coded Modulation “MCM”

Abstract

This paper proposes a new space-time coding scheme for non-coherent MIMO systems. In this scheme, called Matrix Coded Modulation (MCM), a joint channel error-correcting code and space-time code is considered. Coherent systems are those for which Channel State Information (CSI) is available at the transmitters and/or at the receivers, and their performance strongly depend on the channel estimation. Generally, this CSI estimation requires the insertion of pilot-symbols in the transmitted frame which implies a spectral efficiency loss of the global system. The existing non-coherent MIMO systems like Differential Space Time Modulation (DSTM) suffer not only from the degradation of performance compared to coherent systems, but also from many constraints on the channel and the use of memory at reception. In the proposed MCM scheme, decoding can be achieved with or without CSI at the receiving antennas. Moreover, a low-complexity decoding algorithm is described and compared to the existing differential schemes.