Antenna Diversity Techniques for a Single Carrier System with Frequency Domain Equalization – An Overview

In this work we investigate the possibilities of combining diversity techniques with a Single Carrier System with Frequency Domain Equalization (SC/FDE), as future transmission concepts will also be judged by their possibilities to be combined with multiple antennas. Concepts of multiple antennas allow either a significant performance gain through diversity or significant higher capacity based on spacial multiplexing. In this contribution we will point out the excellent possibilities of SC/FDE to be combined with diversity techniques, as the process of the equalization itself can be combined with receive diversity as well as with space time block (STBC) decoding. This combination gives a reduced signal processing complexity as well as the expected enormous performance gain. Especially the concept of STBC allows an advantageous combination with SC/FDE as both are based on a blockwise processing that can be formulated advantageously in the frequency domain. Our simulation results are based on the parameters of the IEEE 802.11a standard.