Combined adaptive modulation and coding with space-time block code for high data rate transmission

In this paper, the novel combination scheme for adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) and space-time block code (STBC) in which turbo code is used, namely AMC (turbo)/STBC, is proposed for the high data rate transmission. Considering the soft input to the iterative turbo decoder, two soft decision methods to get the bit soft information under maximum likelihood (ML) criteria have been studied. Simulation results prove the novelty of the proposed scheme. And both of two methods have better transmission reliability and larger system throughput than the conventional AMC system and the "method 2" which combines the STBC decoder and the signal demodulation together gets the best frame error rate performance.