Two New Coding Techniques for Diversity Communication Systems

In the classical diversity techniques widely used in combating fading and in spread-spectrum systems, the same information is transmitted over m ≧ 2 channels. The overall error probability is reduced by a suitable combination of the m received signals. This paper presents two new techniques applicable to diversity systems. Using the proposed techniques, the signals transmitted over the m channels corresponding to a given message—albeit different—can be encoded through a suitable error-correcting coding operation, thereby enhancing reductions in the receiver-side bit error probability with respect to classical diversity techniques. Applications to fading-affected communication systems and spread-spectrum systems are discussed. © 1990 IEEE