Capacity Approaching Super-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Code

This paper introduces a super-orthogonal space-time block code (STBC). The code construction is based on the expansion of orthogonal block code via a unitary matrix transformation. By expanding the orthogonal block code, both the code rate can be increased and the performance improved in terms of Eb/N0, with a moderate increase of the receiver complexity. Exploiting the partial orthogonality of super-orthogonal STBC, a simplified maximum likelihood decoder will be derived. The constrained capacity and performance are compared with orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal block codes in computer simulation.