Design and Performance Analysis of Distributed Space Time Coding Schemes for Cooperative Wireless Networks

ii PhD Thesis by Gbenga Owojaiye University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts. AL10 9AB, United Kingdom Abstract In this thesis, space-time block codes originally developed for multiple antenna systems are extended to cooperative multi-hop networks. The designs are applicable to any wireless network setting especially cellular, adhoc and sensor networks where space limitations preclude the use of multiple antennas. The thesis first investigates the design of distributed orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal space time block codes in cooperative networks with single and multiple antennas at the destination. Numerical and simulation results show that by employing multiple receive antennas the diversity performance of the network is further improved at the expense of slight modification of the detection scheme. The thesis then focuses on designing distributed space time block codes for cooperative networks in which the source node participates in cooperation. Based on this, a source-assisting strategy is proposed for distributed orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal space time block codes. Numerical and simulation results show that the source-assisting strategy exhibits improved diversity performance compared to the conventional distributed orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal designs. Motivated by the problem of channel state information acquisition in practical wireless network environments, the design of differential distributed space time block codes is investigated. Specifically, a co-efficient vector-based differential encoding and decoding scheme is proposed for cooperative networks. The thesis then explores the concatenation of differential strategies with several distributed space time block coding schemes namely; the Alamouti code, square-real orthogonal codes, complex-orthogonal codes, and quasiorthogonal codes, using cooperative networks with different number of relay nodes. In order to cater for high data rate transmission in non-coherent cooperative networks, differential