Bounded delay-tolerant space time block codes for asynchronous cooperative networks

When distributed cooperative nodes are communicating with a destination, the received signal can be asynchronous due to the propagation or processing delays. This can destroy the space time block code properties designed initially for synchronous case. In this paper, a new construction method of bounded delay tolerant codes is presented. These new codes preserve the full diversity with optimal rates if the relative delays are in a designed delay tolerance interval. The general design method is based on the concatenation and permutation of optimal synchronous space time block codes and works for an arbitrary number of transmitting and receiving antennas. Examples of bounded delay tolerant codes based on the Alamouti code, the Golden code and Threaded Algebraic Space-Time (TAST) codes are given. Theoretical proofs are used to show that the new codes respect the design criteria. Simulation results manifest better error rate performance of the new codes compared to other known delay tolerant codes.