Performance of space time coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing schemes with delay spreads

To combat the effect of intersymbol interference caused by frequency selectivity of fading channel in space time coding schemes, two main methods are employed, i.e. multichannel equalization and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. The complexity of the multichannel equalization method restricts its use widely. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) converts the frequency selective channel into parallel non-frequency selective subchannel and eliminates the intersymbol interference. This paper investigates using Monte Carlo simulations, the performance of known space time coding schemes in an OFDM environment with different channel delay spreads. Simulation results (i.e. frame error rate) show that super-orthogonal space time code in an OFDM environment outperform other schemes (i.e. STTC-OFM and STBC-OFDM) with delay spreads incorporated.