1. A Simple Transmit Diversity Technique for Wireless Communications -M
A Simple Transmit Diversity Technique for Wireless Communications -M. Alamouti 1998
Chou-pin Wu
09/06/2006

2. Abstract
Using two transmit antennas and one receive antenna the scheme provides the same diversity order as maximal-ratio receiver combining (MRRC) with one transmit antenna, and two receive antennas.
Advantage:
1. Redundancy is applied in space across multiple antennas, not
in time or frequency.
=>Doesn’t require any bandwidth expansion .
2. It doesn’t need any feedback from the receiver to the TX.
3. Its computation complexity is similar to MRRC.
4. Two transmit antennas and M receive antennas provides a diversity order of 2M.

3. Introduction ex: BER= 10-2 => 10-3
The remote units are supposed to be small lightweight pocket communicators and provide high bit rate data services.
The communication systems are supposed to have better quality and coverage, be more power and bandwidth efficient.
The fundamental phenomenon which makes reliable wireless
transmission difficult is time-varying multipath fading .
ex: BER= => 10-3
environment
SNR increasing
AWGN
1 or 2 db
Multipath
>10dB

4. Introduction (cont) Transmitter power control (the most effective ) :
If channel conditions are known at the transmitter ,the transmitter can predistort the signal in order to overcome the effect of the channel at the receiver.
Two problems:
Transmitter dynamic range:
a. For the transmitter to overcome a certain level of fading, it
must increase its power by that same level .
b. It is not practical because of radiation power limitations and
the size and cost of the amplifiers.
Channel information:
a. The channel information has to be fed back to the transmitter. b. throughput degradation and added complexity to both the
transmitter and the receiver.

5. Introduction (cont)
Time and frequency diversity:
time interleaving and error correction coding resulting in large delays when the channel is slowly varying.
spread spectrum techniques are ineffective when the coherence BW of the channel is larger than the spreading BW.
Antenna diversity :
a. use multiple antennas at the RX (RX diversity) and perform
combining or selection and switching to improve the quality of
the received signal.
b. makes the remote units larger and more expensive.

6. MRRC (Maximum Receive Ratio Combining)
note1

7. MRRC (cont) if signals are equal constellations:
Using Euclidean distance to detect:
chose xi if
d2(xi ,y) <= d2(xk ,y) i != k
ps. d2(x ,y) = (x - y) (x*-y*)
MRRC: SO’= (α02 + α12) sO + h0* n0 + h1* n1
chose si if
d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12) si ) <= d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12) sk )
if signals are equal constellations:
d2(s0’ , si ) <= d2(s0’ , sk )

8. MRRC Note
By Schwartz’ Inequality
, if
Maximize SNR =>

9. The new transmit diversity scheme
encoding and transmission sequence
combining scheme
maximum likelihook decision rule

10. New scheme (cont) time antenna0 antenna1 t s0 s1 t+T -s1* s0*
Encoding and transmission sequence :
Assumption:
time
antenna0
antenna1 t s0 s1
t+T
-s1*
s0*
Combining scheme:
Maximum likelihood decision rule:
chose si if
it is equal to two-branch MRRC.
d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12) si ) <=
d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12) sk )

11. New scheme (cont) - two-branch transmit diversity with M antennas

12. New scheme (cont) - two-branch transmit diversity with M antennas
Encoding and transmission sequence:
like 2-to-1 transmission diversity.
Combining scheme: RX TX
Antenna0
Antenna1 h0 h2 h1 h3
Assumption:

13. New scheme (cont) - two-branch transmit diversity with M antennas
Maximum likelihood decision rule:
chose si if
if signals are equal constellations:
The combined signals from the two RX antennas are the addition of the combined signals from each antenna ,i.e., the combining scheme is identical to a single RX antenna .
=>using two transmit and M receive antennas ,we can use the combiner to obtain the same diversity order as 2M-branch MMRC.
d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12+α22 + α32) si ) <= d2(s0’ , (α02 + α12+α22 + α32) sk )
d2(s0’ , si ) <= d2(s0’ , sk )

14. Error performance simulation
The total radiated power at Tx are equal.
=> the performance of the new scheme with two transmitters and a single receiver is 3 dB worse than two-branch MRRC.

15. Implement issues Power requirements:
1. the 3-dB reduction of power in each transmit chain translates to cheaper, smaller, or less linear power amplifiers.
2. to employ two half-power amplifiers rather than a single full power amplifier.
Sensitivity to Channel Estimation Errors:
1. The RX extracts the samples and interpolates them to construct an estimate of the channel for every data symbol transmitted.
2. With 2(M) TX and 1 RX antennas, however, the estimates of the 2(M) channels must be derived from a single received signal.
=>2(M) times as many pilots are needed

16. Implement issues (cont)
Delay effects
1.With 2-branch transmit diversity, if the transformed copies of the signals are transmitted at distinct intervals from all the antennas, the decoding delay is symbol 2 periods.
2. if the copies are sent at the same time and on different carrier frequencies, then the decoding delay is only one symbol period.
Antenna configurations
1. the propagation medium between the TX and TX in either direction are identical.
2. to provide sufficient decorrelation between the signals transmitted from the two transmit antennas at base station >= 10 wavelengths.
3. the transmit antennas at the remote units must be separated by about 3 wavelengths to provide diversity at the base station.

17. Implement issues (cont)
Soft failure
1.one of the channel fail, and the other channel is operational, then the performance loss is on the order of the diversity gain.
2. adding reliability due to multiple TX chains.
Impact on interference
1. simultaneous transmission of signals from two antennas.
=>it appears that the number of potential interferers is doubled ,however, each with half the interference power.
2. If interference has properties where interference cancellation schemes may be effectively used.

18. Conclusion and discussions
Using 2 TX antennas and 1 RX antenna the scheme provides the same diversity order as maximal-ratio receiver combining (MRRC) with 1 TX antenna, and 2 RX antennas.
2 TX antennas and M RX antennas provides a diversity order of 2M.
To employ two half-power amplifiers rather than a single full power amplifier.
2 times as many pilots are needed.