Performance of space-time trellis coding over Nakagami fading channels

Space-time trellis codes have previously been proposed as an efficient method to provide both transmit diversity and coding gains for high-data-rate wireless communications. In this paper, we study the use of space-time trellis coding over Nakagami fading channels. The performance analysis and evaluation of space-time trellis coding over slow Nakagami fading channels are presented. By assuming that all diversity branch fadings and noise are statistically independent, an upper bound of the pairwise error probability of space-time coding in Nakagami fading is obtained. In particular, the analysis shows that the design criteria of space-time trellis codes for Rayleigh fading still hold when used over both independent and correlated Nakagami fading channels. Simulation results are provided for space-time trellis coding over independent and correlated Nakagami fading channels with various fading parameters and correlation coefficients.