On the probability of error of antenna-subset selection with space-time block codes

Orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) can obtain full diversity advantage with a simple, but optimal, receiver. Unfortunately, OSTBCs lack in array gain compared with beamforming techniques and suffer a rate loss for more than two transmit antennas. One simple method for improving the array gain and adapting OSTBCs to any number of transmit antennas is antenna-subset selection, where the OSTBC is transmitted on a subset of the transmit antennas. In this letter, we analyze the symbol-error rate performance of antenna-subset selection combined with OSTBCs.