ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some design criteria for Space Time Block Coded (STBC) codes and deals with the design of orthogonal STBC for both real and complex constellations. STBC codes have been explored widely because of their capability of achieving full diversity order and simplicity of the detection process when they are orthogonal. The design criteria are nothing but the guidelines to obtain a code that gives optimum diversity gain and coding gain. Rank determinant criteria help to design an STBC code that gives optimum error performance. According to rank criteria, only the STBC systems with full rank difference matrix achieve full diversity. Thus, Alamouti STBC design has a full rank codeword difference matrix. The detection process for orthogonal designs for STBC multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with multiple receiver antennas is just a simple extension of the process discussed for STBC MIMO systems with single receiver antennas.
