Iterative Decoding of Serially Concatenated Space-Time Codes in WCDMA Systems with Short Frames

In this letter, we investigate serially concatenated space-time codes (SC-STs) applying iterative decoding topologies in wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) communication systems. In the decoding algorithm, an iterative (turbo) process is used, where a priori probability (APP) is exchanged between the symbol-by-symbol space-time (ST) decoder and the bit-by-bit convolutional decoder. The experimental results show that in a Rayleigh fading channel environment the serially concatenated interleaved space-time coding systems show significant error correction capability, and based on the applied system configurations, the nonrecursive ST code outperforms the recursive ST code.