Energy efficient turbo based space-time coder

Recent studies have shown that space-time coding is an effective approach to increasing the data rate over wireless channels. Turbo-based space-time codes take advantage of both the diversity techniques of space-time systems and the randomness of the turbo codes. We compare two turbo-based space-time codes and their approximate versions with respect to energy consumption and performance. The approximations are aimed at reducing the computational complexity and include reduction in the number of paths, number of iterations and datapath computations. Our analysis shows that the space-time turbo code based versions should be used in applications where low energy consumption is the primary design objective, and turbo trellis coded modulation space-time block code based versions should be used where performance is the primary design objective.