Decision-feedback receiver for quasi-orthogonal space-time coded OFDM using correlative coding over fast fading channels

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is robust against frequency selective fading, but it is very vulnerable to time selective fading. In quasi-orthogonal space-time coded OFDM (ST-OFDM) systems, channel variations cause not only inter-carrier interference among different subcarriers in one OFDM block, but also inter-transmit-antenna interference (ITAI). When applied in fast fading channels, common ST-ODFM receivers usually suffer from an irreducible error floor. In this letter, we apply frequency-domain correlative coding combined with a modified decision-feedback detection scheme to effectively suppress the error floor of quasi-orthogonal ST-OFDM over fast fading channels. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme in mitigating the effects of channel time selectivity is demonstrated through comparison with existing schemes such as zero-forcing, two-stage zero-forcing, and sequential decision feedback estimation.