Petri Isomki | Jouni Isoaho

On Diversity Combining

TUCS Technical Report

No 884, April 2008

On Diversity Combining
Petri Isomki

University of Turku, Department of Information Technology

Joukahaisenkatu 3-5, 20520 Turku, Finland
petri.isomaki@utu.fi

Jouni Isoaho

University of Turku, Department of Information Technology

Joukahaisenkatu 3-5, 20520 Turku, Finland
jouni.isoaho@utu.fi

TUCS Technical Report

No 884, April 2008

Abstract
Diversity is needed for mitigating the effects of multipath fading in wireless
communications. Diversity techniques are based on that receiver gets several signals bearing the same information, through independently fading channels.
Diversity can be introduced in three different domains: time, frequency and
space. The use of interleaving and coding provides time diversity. Frequency
diversity can be achieved by using spread spectrum signals. Of multi antenna
configurations for space diversity, receive diversity is the most widely utilized, for
instance at the base stations of mobile communication systems.
This report discusses techniques for receive diversity combining. Typical
methods are presented at first, and thereafter, various physical layer designs with
receive diversity are discussed. Space-time coding is a more advanced technique
that can approach the capacity limit of the MIMO channel and give the diversity
and coding gains.

Keywords: Diversity, Diversity Combining, Selection Combining, Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC), Space-Time Coding, MIMO

TUCS Laboratory
Communication Systems Laboratory

1 Introduction
In wireless communications, diversity is commonly used for compensating the effects of multipath fading. Large attenuation of wireless channel results in very
poor performance. Even short periods of deep fade cause large performance
penalty [1]. Diversity techniques are based on different structures where receiver
gets several signals bearing the same information, through independently fading
channels [1]. The probability that all the signals are simultaneously in deep fade
is much lower [3].
Diversity can be introduced in three different domains: time, frequency and
space. This report concentrates on diversity combining methods for receive diversity that is achieved by using multiple receive antennas, although diversity techniques are also discussed in general. The combining can be performed by using
several different methods, and depending on the application, at different stages of
the receiver chain. Typical methods include selection combining, equal gain combining and maximal ratio combining. Simpler implementation is the advantage of
combining after detection of each branch one by one, i.e. post-detection combining. Combining can also be performed, for example, before or after decoding or
DFT if there are such blocks in the physical layer design.
Receive diversity is widely utilized, e.g. at the base stations of cellular communication systems. Since size and power consumption of mobile devices are
usually constrained, transmit diversity may also be considered, although it is more
difficult to exploit than receive diversity [3]. However, there is a more attractive
technique: the joint design of coding and transmit diversity. The radio spectrum
is also a limited resource. By using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, a significantly higher efficiency is achievable [3]. Space-time coding is a
technique that can approach the capacity limit of the MIMO channel and give
the diversity and coding gains. Due to this, and from the practical point of view,
thanks to the benefits like higher bitrates, increased range and lower power consumption, the MIMO approach has become increasingly popular for wireless local
area networks, cellular systems etc. That topic has been extensively covered for
instance in [3].
The report1 is organized as follows: Section 2 presents diversity techniques.
Sections 3 and 4 present diversity combining methods in general and for various
physical layer designs. Existing and upcoming wireless communication systems
with diversity techniques are discussed in Section 5.

1 This

work is a part of project called Scalable Error-Tolerant Software-Defined Radio Platforms, funded by the Academy of Finland.

2 Diversity Techniques
This section presents techniques that allow the receiver to get multiple signals
through independently fading channels, in order to obtain diversity gain. There
are three resources that are used in communications: time, frequency and space.
Accordingly, there are these three domains where diversity can be introduced,
resulting time, frequency or space diversity. There are certain conditions for each
domain that provide independently fading channels. The techniques for different
domains are listed in Table 1 and further described in the following subsections.
Table 1: Diversity Techniques
Domain
Technique
frequency diversity same information on multiple frequency slots
spread spectrum signals
time diversity
repetition
error correction coding and interleaving
space diversity
receive diversity (multiple rx antennas)
transmit diversity (multiple tx antennas)
angle-of-arrival diversity
polarization diversity
macroscopic diversity
MIMO and space-time coding

2.1 Frequency Diversity

For frequency diversity, the same information is transmitted on multiple frequency
slots [2]. The separation between the slots has to be at least the coherence bandwidth f c of the channel [1]. A shortcoming of the scheme is that multiple transmitters are needed [1]. In practice, frequency diversity is usually achieved by
using spread spectrum signals, i.e. direct sequence, frequency hopping or multicarrier spread spectrum modulation [3].

2.2 Time Diversity

For time diversity, the same information is transmitted in different time slots. The
separation between the time slots has to be at least the coherence time t c of the
channel. The basic form of time and frequency diversity, as described here, can
be seen as utilization of repetition block coding, where combining method is the
soft decision decoding of the repetition code [2]. There exist much more efficient
codes than the repetition code. Thus, in practice, diversity is often introduced by
adding error correction coding and interleaving.
2

2.3 Space Diversity

Space diversity is achieved by using multiple antennas that are separated by a
large enough distance to make signals uncorrelated [3]. The distance requirement
depends, for instance, of the propagation channel and frequency. According to [3],
distance of a few wavelengths is usually enough, whereas in [35], it is cited that 10
to 30 wavelengths are required at a base station for correlation of 0.7 according to
measurements. In receive diversity, there are multiple receiving antennas, whereas
in transmit diversity, there are multiple transmitting antennas. In macroscopic
diversity, two or more base stations are used simultaneously [38]. Angle-of-arrival
diversity and polarization diversity are special cases of space diversity. Because
the required distance of tens of wavelengths corresponds to several meters, a four
antenna configuration with 45o polarized components, of the same size as a dual
antenna configuration, has been proposed in [35].
Receive diversity is widely used, for example in cellular base stations. Transmit diversity is more difficult to take advantage of, because the transmitted signals
are mixed together, and the transmitter does not have instantaneous channel state
information [3]. On the other hand, it is difficult to put multiple receive antennas to a mobile device, because of size and power consumption constraints. In
contrast, transmit diversity decreases the processing power needed by the receiver
[3]. However, the receiver also has to be modified: either feedback or some signal
processing at the receiver is needed for exploiting the diversity in the transmitted signal. Thus, the use of transmit diversity has to be defined in the standard,
whereas receive diversity can be employed in any receiver design.
Transmit diversity can be combined with error control coding. A more optimal
scheme is the joint design of transmit diversity, error control coding and modulation [3]. The technique is called Space-Time Coding (STC). With STC, diversity
and coding gain can be achieved without bandwidth expansion [3]. Large capacity gains have been shown to be possible by using multiple-input multiple-output
(MIMO) systems, and STC is a way to approach the capacity limit. Channel capacity formulas for different combinations of transmit an receive antennas can be
found in [3].
In practice, multiple diversity schemes are usually used together [3].

3 Diversity Combining Methods

A classification of diversity schemes can be made based on combining methods.
In order to get the diversity gain, the signals from multiple channels have to be
combined, and the combining method affects the performance of the diversity
technique. There are methods with different levels of complexity and varying
need for channel state information.
The combining techniques have applications also in other contexts, such as
frequency diversity (RAKE receiver) [2] or packet retransmission protocols [25].
However, here they are discussed especially from the point of view of space (receive) diversity.
The methods with low complexity include equal gain combining (EGC) and
selection combining (SC). In selection combining, the signal with the largest instantaneous SNR is chosen as the output. A receiver with selection combiner is
shown in Fig. 3.1. In practice, it is difficult to measure SNR directly. Therefore,
the highest total power (signal and noise) is used as the selection metric [16]. An
analysis of these S + N selection systems is provided in [16] for various binary
modulation schemes. The performance of the S + N selection is actually better

RF

ADC

RF

ADC

RF

ADC

Select

Figure 3.1: Selection Combining

4

Detector

compared to the traditional SNR based method. For many cases, the performance
is equal to the EGC, which needs co-phasing.
Equal gain combining and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are linear combining methods, i.e. signals are weighted and added together [3]:
L

r = ai ri
i=1

In equal gain combining, the amplitudes of the weights are equal:

ai = e ji
where i is the phase of the received signal, i.e. the signals are co-phased and
added together.
In maximal ratio combining, the weights are proportional to the received SNR
at each antenna. If the noise powers are assumed equal, the weights are given by:
ai = Ai e ji
where Ai is the amplitude and i is the phase of the received signal. Therefore,
MRC requires the estimates of the channel fading and the signal phase. Maximal
ratio combining is the optimal method in the sense that it can maximize received
SNR [3]. A receiver with maximal ratio combiner is shown in Fig. 3.2.
The bit error probability of BPSK signaling with MRC is given by [1]
"
#

L1 
2 k
1

2k
Pb,MR,BPSK =
1
k
2
4
k=0
s
Eb /N0
=
1 + Eb /N0
and the bit error probability with selection combining given by [31]

Pb,SC,BPSK

L
=
2

"

L1 

k=0

L1
k

(1)

1
Eb /N0

1 p

1
1 + (1 + k)

1
1+k

where Eb /N0 is the signal to noise ratio and L is the number of diversity branches.
The theoretical bit error rates and results from a simulation for up to four diversity
branches are shown in Fig. 3.3.
Without the channel state information about fading, noiseless signal power
cannot be used as the weight. The effect of using S + N instead of SNR for
5

a1
1

RF

ADC

a2
2

RF

Detector

ADC

aL
L

RF

ADC

Figure 3.2: Maximal Ratio Combining

0

10

no diversity
maximal ratio
theoretical
selection combining
theoretical

BER

10

10

10

4
SNR (dB)

Figure 3.3: Combining Methods

6

10

10
theoretical BER (MRC)
channel attenuation as weight
received power as weight
equal gain combining

10

BER

10

10

10

10

SNR (dB)

Figure 3.4: Maximal Ratio Combining with Incomplete Channel State Information
weighting in MRC is depicted in Fig. 3.4. Perfect co-phasing has been assumed.
Opposite to the results for SC, the use of S + N decreases performance of MRC.
Actually, simulations show that even EGC performs better, i.e. S + N should not
be used as the weight. If the carrier phase does not change significantly over the
duration of two symbols, differential PSK (DPSK) modulation can be used [2],
and combining can be done without co-phasing [8, 9]. According to [16], EGC
after differential detection2 is the optimal combining method for DPSK, while for
two branch binary DPSK, S + N selection combining gives equal performance.
However, as seen in [8, 9], pre-detection MRC is the most optimal, even though
an unnecessarily complex method for DPSK.
In generalized selection combining (GSC), more than one branch are chosen
for combining. In selection 2 combining (SC2), the two best diversity branches
are chosen. Generalized selection combining has been discussed in [31, 33, 34].
In [31], SC2 and SC3 have been compared to MRC for a coherent receiver and to
2 Sometimes

also called post-detection MRC or product detector combiner. See Section 4.

EGC for a non-coherent receiver. The performance of GSC is particularly good

in the case of non-coherent detection. In [33], there has been proposed a better
selection method for GSC, based on log-likelihood ratio instead of SNR. As mentioned in the previous section, increased power consumption is a disadvantage
of receive diversity. A threshold-based adaptive GSC for decreasing processing
power requirements has been presented in [27].
Rayleigh fading channel is commonly used in the analysis of diversity techniques. Various departures from the model have been investigated. The effect of
correlated diversity has been explored in [20]. An unexpected result is that, in case
of selection combining, correlation decreases error rate at low SNR and increases
error rate at high SNR. The influence of the power profile of the fading channel
has been analyzed in [26]. The effect of impulsive noise has been investigated
in [15]. It is shown that post-detection combining is much more effective against
highly impulsive noise than pre-detection SC, EGC or MRC when there are many
diversity branches. An adaptive receiver design for non-Gaussian noise has been
proposed in [7].

4 Combining Domains
This section presents combining schemes with combining at different stages of
the receiver, for various system and receiver designs.
The combining of the outputs the branches can be performed either before detection (pre-detection diversity combining) or after detection (post-detection diversity combining). Post-detection combiners weight and combine the diversity
channels after detection and therefore, there is no need for co-phasing operation,
which has a high implementation cost [8]. A receiver with post-detection combiner is shown in Fig. 4.5.
Combining can also be done before, within, or after FEC decoding. In OFDM
systems, combining may be performed before or after FFT, and in spread spectrum systems, there may be chip level or symbol level combining. The following
subsections represent a view based on the referred papers, rather than being a
complete analysis of the topic.

4.1 Post-Detection Combining

For differential detection, the post-detection MRC, shown in Fig. 4.5, is actually equivalent to the equal gain combining without hard limiters after product
detectors [8]. In [9], this combining method is called the post-detection product
detector combiner.

RF

ADC

Product
detector

RF

ADC

Product
detector

RF

ADC

Product
detector

Decision

Figure 4.5: Post-Detection Maximal Ratio Combiner for DPSK

9

For two branch QDPSK, post-detection MRC outperforms post-detection selection combining by 1.5 dB [8], whereas for 2-DPSK, the performance is equal
[16]. For higher order diversity, post-detection MRC performs better than SC [16].
In correlated Nakagami fading channel, the post-detection MRC is only 1 - 3 dB
worse than pre-detection MRC, depending on the channel, the branch separation
and the number of branches [9].
The optimal combining for differential PSK has been analyzed in [8]. The
analysis covers multiplicative and very slow frequency selective Rayleigh fading
channels with co-channel interference (CCI). It is shown that post-detection maximal ratio combining is optimal only in the case of equal average power in each
branch. If the CCI is the only significant cause of errors, the weights should be
inverse proportional to the average CCI power, whereas in the AWGN limited
case, the post-detection MRC provides good, almost optimal performance even
for unequal powers [8].
An efficient implementation of post-detection MRC without any multipliers
has been presented in [22].

4.2 Combining of Coded Waveforms

It is non-trivial to find the relationship between branch weights and error rate after
decoding [23]. The conventional selection diversity combiners try to minimize
the probability of hard decision error [10]. They do not necessarily minimize the
post-decoding error probability. In [10], multiple generalized selection combining
methods based on the log-likelihood ratio have been presented. Simulations have
been performed for low-density parity check and Turbo codes. The coding gain,
compared to the traditional SNR based selection, is improved especially when
only a few diversity branches are selected for combining.
The combined effects of maximal ratio combining and hard decision Viterbi
decoding have been investigated in [11]. It is concluded that with two-branch
diversity, the tolerable rms delay spread and the spectrum efficiency are insensitive
to the code rate, whereas without diversity, the performance degrades while code
rate increases.
Soft decision Viterbi decoding with selection combining in or after decoder,
and pre-Viterbi maximal ratio combining in Rician fading channel have been compared in [14]. The post-Viterbi selection combiner compares decoded signals using the likelihood information given by the Viterbi decoder. The method that
makes the selection in the decoder computes first branch metrics for transitions in
all diversity channels, and then selects the survivor by comparing all the metrics
jointly. The pre-Viterbi MRC performed better than the two other combiners.
A method similar to [14] for combining within the Viterbi algorithm has been
compared to soft decision decoding with pre-decoding combining also in [13].
Binary PSK and (7,4) Hamming code were used. In this case, the simulations
show better performance for the pre-decoding combiner.
10

Viterbi decoder
1

RF

ADC

Viterbi
decoder

RF

ADC

Viterbi
decoder

Selector

RF

ADC

RF

ADC

ACS

MLD

path
memory

RF

ADC

Viterbi
decoder

RF

ADC

(a)

RF

ADC

RF

ADC

RF

ADC

(b)

MRC

Viterbi
decoder

RF

ADC

Detector

RF

ADC

Detector

RF

ADC

Detector

(c)

Code
combiner

Viterbi
decoder

(d)

Figure 4.6: Combining Methods with Viterbi Decoding [14, 19]

Interleaved code combining (ICC) interleaves outputs of diversity branches in
order to obtain a combined code word [19]. The combined code word can be
decoded by using the same trellis structure that would be used without diversity.
Interleaved code combining was originally used in packet retransmission protocols [25]. For diversity combining in a system with trellis coded modulation, the
performances of EGC before decoding and ICC have been theoretically analyzed
in [25]. The case of 1/2 rate convolutional encoding with QPSK has also been
simulated. With large number of diversity branches, the ICC method gives about
1 dB gain compared to the pre-decoding combining, but demodulation complexity
increases significantly. For practical number of branches, the gain is minimal.
However, the analysis in [19] shows that ICC is effective for a wider range
a of conditions and gives much better performance in channels with frequency
selective fading or co-channel interference, compared to the conventional MRC.
The four different combining methods for coded waveforms are shown in Fig.
4.6. Post-Viterbi-decoding selection in Fig. 4.6(a) selects the best diversity branch
11

Binary PSK over Rayleigh Fading Channel

10

predetection MRC, (7,3) cyclic code

(7,3) cyclic code, post decoding combining
post detection combining, (7,3) cyclic code
MRC, no coding

10

BER

10

10

10

10

SNR (dB)

Figure 4.7: Diversity and Coding

after Viterbi decoding. The method of Fig. 4.6(b) selects the survivor path among
all the diversity branches at add-compare-select (ACS) function of the Viterbi
algorithm. The pre-Viterbi-decoding maximal ratio combiner in Fig. 4.6(c) performs the combining before the Viterbi decoder. Interleaved code combining is
shown in Fig. 4.6(d). In [19], the method (d) has been enhanced by using errorand-erasure correction Viterbi decoding. Unreliable symbols are erased based on
the channel state information.
In Fig. 4.7, there are shown simulation results of BPSK over fading channel
with combining at three different stages. The post-decoding combining is based
on the detected errors, which is clearly a non-optimal method. As discussed above,
if there is likelihood information available from the decoder, some performance
gain can be achieved.

4.3 Combining and OFDM

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) can be used for communication over fading channels. However, there is still performance loss due to fading
12

RF

ADC

DFT

RF

ADC

DFT

RF

ADC

DFT

MRC

P/S

deinter
leaver

decoder

Figure 4.8: COFDM diversity receiver with post-DFT combining [23]

even with OFDM, and therefore, combination of space diversity and OFDM has
been investigated.
In frequency selective fading, conventional combining methods are inefficient
for OFDM [23]. MRC before DFT amplifies noise if corresponding subcarrier
is in deep fade [18]. Post-DFT combining is the optimal method in sense that it
maximizes SNR after combining [23]. In [18], there has been proposed an optimal
combiner that integrates diversity combining, demodulation and equalization in
a maximum likelihood decoder of COFDM. Simulations show that the bit level
combiner can provide 2 - 4 dB gain over a conventional symbol level combiner.
A post-DFT combining coded OFDM (COFDM) diversity receiver is shown
in Fig. 4.8.
Post-DFT combining requires FFT processor for each branch. In [5], a joint
antenna and post-DFT combining has been proposed. The antenna combining is
based on an electromagnetic coupled array antenna, which has limitation on the
number of diversity branches. Simulation results show that the joint antenna and
post-DFT combiner can achieve the same performance as four branch post-DFT
combiner while using only two sets of receiver components.
A Pre-DFT combining scheme is proposed in [23], in order to reduce computational complexity. Only one FFT processor is needed. For calculating the
weights, time domain correlation between the signals is used, instead of estimating frequency response directly, in order to avoid the need for FFT processors. It
is shown that the optimum weights can be obtained from the covariance matrix
that is built using the impulse responses of all branches.
13

4.4 Combining and Spread Spectrum

Combining for multipath diversity gain in RAKE receiver of direct sequence
CDMA (DS-CDMA) systems has been presented for instance in [2].
In spread spectrum systems, space diversity combining can be performed either at chip level or at symbol level. For spread spectrum OFDM (SS-OFDM),
symbol level combining after despreading has been compared to chip level maximal ratio combining in [17]. The chip level combining is shown to be better if the
diversity branches are uncorrelated. The chip level combining can compensate the
effect of inter code interference caused by frequency selective fading.
The SS-OFDM system in [17] is actually commonly known as a multicarrier
CDMA (MC-CDMA) system. In [40], there has been presented a post-detection
symbol level combiner for multi tone CDMA (MT-CDMA). In the receiver of this
scheme, the despreading is performed first, followed by detection of each tone
and combining with other branches. The scheme differs from MC-CDMA in that
the transmitter spreads the signal in the time domain and the signal is serial-toparallel converted for transmission using multiple tones, whereas in MC-CDMA,
the spreading is performed in the frequency domain and the same information
is transmitted at each subcarrier [41]. In MC-CDMA, the subcarriers have to
be combined, e.g. by using minimum mean square error combiner (MMSEC).
Combiners like EGC and MRC are insufficient due to interference and loss of orthogonality. The space diversity combiner can be included in the same operation,
i.e. the chip level combiner in [17].
The MT-CDMA diversity receiver is similar to Fig. 4.8. In addition, there is
a despreading block before the DFTs. The MC-CDMA diversity receivers with
chip level and symbol level combining are shown in Fig. 4.9. There are MMSE
equalization and despreading blocks after the DFTs. The chip level combining is
performed before despreading together with an appropriate MMSE equalization,
whereas the symbol level combing is performed after despreading.
A recurrent neural network (RNN) based symbol level combiner for multicarrier direct sequence CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA) has been proposed in [36]. MTCDMA is a special case of MC-DS-CDMA and from the point of view of diversity
combining, they are equal. The performance of the RNN combiner is compared to
a square root Kalman combiner in Rayleigh and Rician channels. The RNN combiner uses a real time training algorithm. Chip level combining has been discarded
because it needs longer training sequences and more processing power. With high
Rician factor, the RNN combiner has better performance only with a low number
of diversity branches, in which case the Kalman system has an error floor. With
lower Rician factors, the Kalman system is unable to track the changing channel
and the RNN combiner becomes the only usable choice.
In [39], there has been proposed a combination of space diversity with MRC
and adaptive antenna array beam forming for uplink of WCDMA, i.e. for DSCDMA. The adaptive antenna array gives better performance than space diversity
14

RF

ADC

DFT

Combining

RF

RF

ADC

ADC

&
MMSE

DFT

L1

DFT

(a)

RF

RF

ADC

ADC

ADC

DFT

DFT

DFT

L1

L1

L1

MMSE

MMSE

Combining

RF

MMSE

(b)
Figure 4.9: MC-CDMA diversity receiver (a) with chip level combining; (b) with
symbol level combining [17]

15

receiver with the same number of antennas [39]. Simulations show that combination where two branches contain four antennas in each branch gives a significant
amount of diversity gain, while interference suppression capability is slightly decreased. Therefore, the combination is suitable for a wider range of environments,
including the interference limited case and channels with only few resolved paths.

4.5 Combining and Multiuser Communications

Combined multiuser detection and diversity reception has been investigated in
[37]. For a DS-CDMA system, both MRC for coherent RAKE receiver and EGC
for differentially coherent RAKE receiver have been presented. Instead of using
pre-detection combining, the decorrelating operation of the multiuser detection
may be performed first. The method has a significant advantage: the estimation
of channel fading and diversity combining can be performed on multiple access
interference free signals [37].
In [38], it has been shown that by using both multiuser detection and macroscopic diversity in a DS-CDMA system, a significant performance gain can be
achieved, compared to employing another of the techniques alone.
In the wide band multiuser communications, there is no loss of diversity order
due to linear detection, assuming that the waveforms of different users are linearly
independent [30]. In contrast to the wide band case, in narrow band multiuser
communications with linear detectors, there is a decrease of achieved diversity
with increased number of interfering users. Therefore, pre-combining multiuser
detection is even more useful in the narrow band case. In [30], there has been
presented a pre-combining group detector, which gives performance gain over the
linear ones. The receiver complexity, in addition to the number of antennas, is a
new parameter for controlling the diversity order.

16

5 Applications
Time diversity is widely exploited in the form of error control coding. Frequency
diversity is also achieved in any spread spectrum system. In present wireless
communication systems, receive diversity is the type of space diversity that is most
widely used, though MIMO systems have become increasingly common. Some
applications in which space diversity techniques have been utilized are listed in
Table 2.
Table 2: Applications of Space Diversity
Receive Diversity
Transmit Diversity
MIMO
uplink: GSM, IS-136,
UMTS/WCDMA
3GPP LTE
UMTS etc
downlink:
802.16 (WiMAX)
cdma-2000 1xEV-DO,
802.16e (mobile WiMAX)
UMTS/HSDPA
DVB-T
802.11n (WLAN)
Receive diversity can be used for enhancing performance in fading environments and for suppressing co-channel interference, with existing standards and
systems (although, it may be useful to define the use of receive diversity also
within standardization, e.g. measurements when there is receive diversity [50]
and the impact of diversity on control channels [51].) Therefore, receive diversity is commonly utilized in mobile cellular communications: multiple antennas
are employed at base stations, for example in GSM and IS-136 [3]. Even though
more common at the uplink, receive diversity is used in the downlink of some
3G cellular systems, i.e. at the mobile device side in cdma-2000 1xEV-DO and
UMTS/HSDPA high-speed data chipsets [42, 43]. Macroscopic diversity [38] and
polarization diversity [35] are also utilized in 3G systems.
There are also DVB-T digital television receivers with receive diversity, designed for mobile reception. In [44], MRC has been used for combining the
COFDM signal of DVB-T. The tests show the receive diversity allows significantly higher speeds for receivers in motion, making DVB-T reception possible at
vehicle speeds typical in urban area.
Due to the size and power consumption limits of mobile devices, transmit
diversity is also gaining more interest. Space-time coding is an efficient way to
exploit transmit diversity and reach the capacity limit of MIMO channels. Spacetime coding and multiple antennas are the key additions of the wireless local area
network standard draft 802.11n [45]. Marketing claims often suggest very high
ratings, such as 270 Mbps throughput, while actual tests show bit rates around
80 Mbps even at good conditions [52]. Nevertheless, the actual bit rates are far
higher than without diversity, i.e. 802.11g, and the operating range is greater. The
17

WiMAX fixed (802.16) and mobile (802.16e) broadband standards also include
MIMO in the definition of the physical layer [46, 47].
In the WCDMA air interface standard for 3G mobile phone networks, transmit
diversity with two transmit antennas has been included since 3GPP WCDMA
Release 4 [48]. MIMO with up to four transmitting and four receiving antennas
will be included in high speed packet access networks [49].

18

6 Conclusions
Because of the effects of multipath fading, some form of diversity is needed in
order to reach reliable transmission.
This report discussed the diversity techniques at first in general. Diversity can
be introduced in three different domains: time, frequency and space. Time diversity is often achieved by using error correction codes and interleaving. Spread
spectrum systems make use of frequency diversity. Space diversity can be based
on multiple receive or transmit antennas and signal processing for combining. In
practice, multiple diversity schemes are usually used together.
The report concentrated on space diversity, more specifically, on diversity
combining for receive diversity. Receive diversity is commonly utilized, e.g. in
cellular base stations for uplink. There are various techniques for combining the
signals from the antennas, with different trade-offs between complexity and efficiency. Different physical layer designs have also variable choices of the combining methods. For instance, encoded waveforms may be combined before, within
or after the decoder.
Pre-detection maximal ratio combining is an optimal method in the sense that
it can maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal. However, there
are various rationales to use other combining methods. For instance, generalized
selection combining may provide the required trade-off between complexity (or
power consumption) and performance. Post-detection combining may be used for
the same reason as non-coherent modulation in general, i.e. significantly lower
complexity with a reasonable performance loss. Variations from the Rayleigh
channel model may also affect the choice of the combining method. In the presence of impulsive noise, post-detection combining may actually perform better.
It is also non-trivial to predict error rates after combining and decoding of
coded waveforms, i.e. the optimal combining has to be designed for the postdecoding error rate. Again, the relative performance of the methods also depends
on the type of the channel: interleaved code combining has been shown to be robust for variable conditions, while pre-decoding MRC may be a good choice in
some cases. In OFDM systems, pre-DFT combining may amplify noise, and in
MC-CDMA, a more complex MMSE combiner is needed due to interference and
loss of orthogonality. In multiuser communications, it is preferable to combine
the branches after detection, in order to be able to remove the interfering signals.
In conclusion, the choice of combing method depends on the physical layer design
and the operating conditions, i.e. there is no one fits all strategy for diversity
combining. The method has to be fixed in the design phase according to the application or, in systems like software defined radio, the method may be reconfigured
as the need arises.
Finally, some applications that exploit space diversity were discussed. The
processing power and size of mobile devices limit the use of receive diversity for
downlink of mobile cellular communication systems. Nevertheless, two receive
19

antenna configurations are sometimes used also at the mobile station. For transmit
diversity, the receiver also has to be modified: either feedback or some signal
processing at the receiver is needed. Thus, the use of transmit diversity is more
difficult to exploit and has to be defined in the standard, whereas receive diversity
can be employed in any receiver design.
Due to the limited feasibility of receive diversity in mobile devices, the use
of multiple transmit antennas is gaining more interest. In addition to combating
multipath fading, MIMO channel combined with space-time coding can give a
large capacity gain. Thus, the MIMO systems have become one of the most active
research topics in wireless communications, and the scheme has been introduced
into a number of the state of the art commercial applications, such as high speed
WLANs and upcoming 3G cellular networks.

20

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25

Lemminkisenkatu 14 A, 20520 Turku, Finland | www.tucs.fi

University of Turku
Department of Information Technology
Department of Mathematics

bo Akademi University
Department of Computer Science
Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research

Turku School of Economics and Business Administration

Institute of Information Systems Sciences

ISBN 978-952-12-2070-8
ISSN 1239-1891