Experiments on space time block coding transmit diversity (STTD) in W-CDMA forward link

This paper elucidates through experiments the improvement in the achievable bit error rate (BER) performance when space time transmit diversity (STTD) is applied to the wideband direct sequence code division multiple access (W-CDMA) forward link. First, laboratory experimental results clarify that the received path timing difference of transmitted signals from two antennas, due to the propagation delay, should be within a chip duration of approximately 1/4 and 1/2 with and without fast transmit power control (TPC), respectively, in order to achieve a prominent transmit diversity effect. We show that the required average received signal energy per bit-to-background noise spectrum density (E_b/N₀) at the average BER of 10^-3 using STTD is decreased by approximately 4.2 (1.7)dB compared to the case of single-antenna transmission at the maximum Doppler frequency, f_D, of 5 Hz without (with) antenna diversity reception at a mobile station (MS) due to the increasing randomization effect of burst error. Furthermore, we elucidate that although the gain of STTD in field experiments is decreased compared to that in laboratory experiments, since the degradation in path search accuracy is greater due to the frequently changing delay time of each path in a real multipath-fading channel, the required average received signal energy per bit-to-interference plus background noise power spectrum density ratio (E_b/I₀) at the average BER of 10^-3 with STTD is decreased by approximately 1.3 to 1.5 (0.7 to 1.0) dB without (with) antenna diversity reception when fast TPC is not applied in the forward link. This indicates that STTD is effective for a channel without TPC such as a common control channel in a real multipath-fading channel.