Precoder design for space-time coded MIMO systems with correlated Rayleigh fading channels

A general framework for precoder design for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is presented in the paper for the case of correlated Rayleigh fading channels. The transmitter exploits the knowledge of the transmit and receive correlation matrices, while the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is assumed to be unknown. The latter assumption is especially important for the case of time-varying channels, for which the instantaneous CSI is typically unavailable at the transmitter. It is also assumed that the receiver has a precise knowledge of the instantaneous CSI. The precoder operates along with an orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) and aims at minimizing the Chernoff bound on the symbol error rate (SER). We show that for some particular correlation scenarios, the closed-form precoder designs can be obtained. Our simulations demonstrate the advantages of the proposed precoding techniques.