Space-Time Coded Massive MIMO for Next Generation Wireless Systems

This paper serves as an evaluation of an experimental wireless communications technique called space-time coded massive (STCM) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). The STCM-MIMO system utilizes two massive MIMO antenna arrays which transmit data over two channel vectors to a user with one receive antenna. This configuration permits the system to use the asymptotic orthogonal qualities of massive MIMO pre-coding to eliminate the interference from other users’ channel vectors and signals. The system also maintains the diversity of space-time codes to recover lost data through treating each transmitting massive MIMO array similarly to how a 2×1 Alamouti spacetime code would treat each transmitting antenna. Our results show that a wireless system with the proposed STCM-MIMO technology can significantly outperform those with space-time coding techniques.