High Data-Rate Single-Symbol ML Decodable Distributed STBCs for Cooperative Networks

High data-rate Distributed Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes (DOSTBCs) which achieve the single-symbol decodability and full diversity order are proposed in this paper. An upper bound of the data-rate of the DOSTBC is derived and it is approximately twice larger than that of the conventional repetition-based cooperative strategy. In order to facilitate the systematic constructions of the DOSTBCs achieving the upper bound of the data-rate, some special DOSTBCs, which have diagonal noise covariance matrices at the destination terminal, are investigated. These codes are referred to as the row-monomial DOSTBCs. An upper bound of the data-rate of the row-monomial DOSTBC is derived and it is equal to or slightly smaller than that of the DOSTBC. Lastly, the systematic construction methods of the row-monomial DOSTBCs achieving the upper bound of the data-rate are presented.