Performance analysis for pilot-embedded data-bearing approach in space-time coded MIMO systems

This paper evaluates the performance of the data-bearing approach for pilot-embedding for joint data detection and channel estimation in space-time (ST) coded MIMO systems. Performance measures, such as the MMSE of channel estimation, Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), and the Chernoff´s bound of the estimated-channel bit error rate (BER) for ST codes, are explored to examine the proposed scheme. The power allocation problem for data and pilot parts is also addressed by optimizing the probability-of-error upper-bound (PEUB) mismatched factor subject to certain constraints. Three kinds of data bearer and pilot structures are investigated via simulations, including time-multiplexing (TM)-based, ST-block-code (STBC)-based, and code-multiplexing (CM)-based data bearer and pilot matrices. Among these three structures, the CM-based scheme provides superior detection performance over the TM-based and the STBC-based schemes for nonquasistatic flat Rayleigh fading channels, while the performances of these three structures are quite close for quasi-static flat Rayleigh fading channels.