Space-time block codes using square Hankel data blocks

Since the design by S.M. Alamouti (see IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol.16, no.8, p.1451-8, October 1998) of a simple orthogonal space-time block code that achieves the same diversity order as maximal-ratio receiver combining, there has been a flurry of work to produce similar codes. While Alamouti´s scheme cannot be extended to more than two antennas for complex modulation, other non-orthogonal codes have been developed. In this paper we analyze a space-time block code formed using Hankel data blocks that is good for any number of antennas. Through analysis and computer simulation we show that this scheme provides the same signal-to-noise ratio for each recovered symbol but fails to reach, on average, the gain reached by Alamouti´s scheme. The methods used in this paper serve as an instructive example of how to look at similar coding schemes to see their utility in the area of space-time coding.