Error performance of hyybrid space-time block code detected based on sorted QR decomposition

Error rate performance of the layered spacetime code (LST) combined with Alamouti coding (AC) in flat Rayleigh fading channel is investigated. With the sorted-QR-decomposition-based decision feedback detector (SQRD-DFD), the channel matrix is Q-R decomposed with proper column permutation to minimize the possibility of error propagation. Error rate performance of the LST combined with AC is compared with that of the LST without AC with both sphere detector (SD) and SQRD-DFD. Simulation results show that in full-rank MIMO systems, when AC is introduced into LST, the error rate performance achievable with SQRD-DFD is very close to that obtainable with SD.