Enhanced Spatial Modulation With Multiple Signal Constellations

In this paper, we introduce a new spatial modulation (SM) technique using one or two active antennas and multiple signal constellations. The proposed technique, which we refer to as Enhanced SM or ESM, conveys information bits not only by the index(es) of the active antenna(s), but also by the constellations transmitted from each of them. The main feature of ESM is that it uses a primary signal constellation during the single active antenna periods and some other secondary constellations during the periods with two active transmit antennas. The secondary signal constellations are derived from the primary constellation by means of geometric interpolation in the signal space. We give design examples using two and four transmit antennas and QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM as primary modulations. The proposed technique is compared to conventional SM as well as to spatial multiplexing (SMX), and the results indicate that in most cases, ESM provides a substantial performance gain over conventional SM and SMX while reducing the maximum-likelihood (ML) decoder complexity.