Constellation Design for Blind Detection of Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes in Wireless MIMO Systems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4108/eetinis.132.12472Keywords:
Blind detection, ML detector, Least-Squares, MIMO Systems, Orthogonal Space-Time Block CodeAbstract
This paper investigates the problem of blind detection of orthogonal space–time block codes (OSTBCs) with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems over quasistatic flat Rayleigh fading channels. To resolve the inherent rotational ambiguity in blind OSTBC detection, we propose a structurally constrained QAM constellation that enables unique symbol recovery without the use of pilot signals. Building on this design, we develop a low-complexity iterative detector, referred to as the iterative maximum-likelihood with averaged initial channel estimate (IML-AICE) detector, which jointly estimates the channel and transmitted symbols. The proposed detector incorporates a novel initialization strategy and an iterative refinement mechanism inspired by clairvoyant maximum-likelihood detection, leading to improved convergence and detection accuracy. The proposed framework enables reliable blind recovery of OSTBC symbols, thereby improving spectral efficiency by eliminating pilot overhead. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed IML-AICE detector consistently outperforms existing trained and blind detection schemes across a range of signal-to-noise ratios and system configurations at low computational complexity.
Downloads
References
[1] Stoica P, Ganesan G. Space–time block codes: trained, blind, and semi-blind detection. Digit Signal Process. 2003;13(1):93–105.
[2] Ma WK, Vo BN, Davidson TN, Ching PC. Blind ML detection of orthogonal space-time block codes: Efficient high-performance implementations. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2006;54(2):738–751.
[3] Alamouti SM. A simple transmit diversity technique for wireless communications. IEEE J Sel Areas Commun. 1998;16(8):1451–1458.
[4] Tarokh V, Jafarkhani H, Calderbank AR. Space-time block codes from orthogonal designs. IEEE Trans Inf Theory. 1999;45(5):1456–1467.
[5] Ganesan G, Stoica P. Space-time block codes: A maximum SNR approach. IEEE Trans Inf Theory. 2001;47(4):1650–1656.
[6] Liang XB. Orthogonal designs with maximal rates. IEEE Trans Inf Theory. 2003;49(10):2468–2503.
[7] Su W, Xia XG, Liu KJR. A systematic design of highrate complex orthogonal space-time block codes. IEEE Commun Lett. 2004;8(6):380–382.
[8] Halmi MH, Abdellatif M, Nooridin N. Orthogonal space-time block codes for large MIMO systems. In: Proc Int Conf Communications, Management and Telecommunications; 2015. p. 78–82.
[9] Zhou S,Muquet B, Giannakis GB. Subspace-based (semi- )blind channel estimation for block precoded space-time OFDM. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2002;50(5):1215– 1228.
[10] Ding Z,Ward DB. Subspace approach to blind and semiblind channel estimation for space-time block codes. IEEE Trans Wireless Commun. 2005;4(2):357–362.
[11] Shahbazpanahi S, Gershman AB, Manton JH. Closedform blind MIMO channel estimation for orthogonal space-time block codes. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2005;53(12):4506–4517.
[12] Ammar N, Ding Z. Channel identifiability under orthogonal space-time coded modulations without training. IEEE TransWireless Commun. 2006;5(5):1003– 1013.
[13] Larsson EG, Stoica P, Li J. Orthogonal space-time block codes: Maximum likelihood detection for unknown channels and unstructured interferences. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2003;51(2):362–372.
[14] Ma WK, Ching PC, Davidson TN, Xia XG. Blind maximum-likelihood decoding for orthogonal spacetime block codes: A semidefinite relaxation approach. In: Proc IEEE GLOBECOM; 2003. p. 2094–2098.
[15] Le MT, Pham VS, Mai L, Yoon G. Efficient algorithm for blind detection of orthogonal space-time block codes. IEEE Signal Process Lett. 2007;14(5):301–304.
[16] Cui T, Tellambura C. Efficient blind receiver design for orthogonal space-time block codes. IEEE Trans Wireless Commun. 2007;6(5):1890–1899.
[17] Muhammad M, Ding Z. A linear programming receiver for blind detection of full-rate space-time block codes. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2010;58(11):5819–5834.
[18] Tian X, Li M, Ti G, Liu W. Fast detection of orthogonal space-time block codes with unknown channel. IEEE Commun Lett. 2016;20(9):1896–1899.
[19] Ma WK, Ching PC, Davidson TN, Vo BN. Blind symbol identifiability of orthogonal space-time block codes. In: Proc IEEE ICASSP; 2004. p. iv-821.
[20] Ma WK. Blind ML detection of orthogonal space-time block codes: Identifiability and code construction. IEEE Trans Signal Process. 2007;55(7):3312–3324.
[21] Via J, Santamaria I. On the blind identifiability of orthogonal space-time block codes from second-order statistics. IEEE Trans Inf Theory. 2008;54(2):709–722.
[22] Hochwald BM, Sweldens W. Differential unitary space-time modulation. IEEE Trans Commun. 2000;48(12):2041–2052.
[23] Mthethwa B, Xu H. Deep learning-based wireless channel estimation for MIMO uncoded space-time labeling diversity. IEEE Access. 2020; 8:224608–224620.
[24] Kang K, Hu Q, Cai Y, Eldar YC. One-shot learning for channel estimation in massive MIMO systems. In: Proc IEEE VTC-Spring; 2023. p. 1–5.
[25] Korpi D, Honkala M, Huttunen JMJ. Deep learningbased pilotless spatial multiplexing. In: Proc Asilomar Conf Signals, Systems, and Computers; 2023. p. 1025– 1029.
[26] Aswathylakshmi P, Ganti RK. Pilotless uplink for massive MIMO systems. In: Proc IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM); 2023. p. 4205–4210.
[27] Yamamoto H, et al. Indoor experiments on deep learning-based pilotless transmission scheme. In: Proc IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC-Fall); 2025. p. 1–5.
[28] Yamamoto H, et al. Indoor experimental trial on AI-based pilotless transmission. IEEE Access. 2026;14:64161–64170. 14
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Minh-Tuan Le, Trung-Hieu Nguyen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 license, which permits unlimited use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
