Asymmetric Space-Time Block Codes for MIMO Systems

In this paper, the need for the construction of asymmetric space-time block codes (ASTBCs) is discussed, mostly concentrating on the case of four transmitting and two receiving antennas for simplicity. Above the trivial puncturing method, i.e. switching off the extra layers in the symmetric multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) setting, a more sophisticated yet simple asymmetric construction method is proposed. This method can be converted to produce multi-block space-time codes that achieve the diversity-multiplexing (D-M) tradeoff. It is also shown that maximizing the density of the newly proposed codes is equivalent to minimizing the discriminant of a certain order. The use of the general method is then demonstrated by building explicit, sphere decodable codes using different cyclic division algebras (CDAs). We verify by computer simulations that the newly proposed method can compete with the puncturing method, and in some cases outperforms it. Our conquering construction exploiting maximal orders improves even upon the punctured perfect code and the DjABBA code.