Differential space-time block-coded OFDMA for frequency-selective fading channels

Combining differential Alamouti space-time block code (DASTBC) with orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), this paper introduces a multiuser/multirate transmission scheme, which allows full-rate and full-diversity noncoherent communications using two transmit antennas over frequency-selective fading channels. Compared with the existing differential space-time coded OFDM designs, our scheme imposes no restrictions on signal constellations, and thus can improve the spectral efficiency by exploiting efficient modulation techniques such as QAM, APSK etc. The main principles of our design are as follows: OFDMA eliminates multiuser interference, and converts multiuser environments to single-user ones; Space-time coding achieves performance improvement by exploiting space diversity available with multiple antennas, no matter whether channel state information is known to the receiver. System performance is evaluated both analytically and with simulations.