Complex field coded MIMO systems: Performance, rate, and trade-offs

The quest for reliable high-rate wireless links motivates fading-resilient and bandwidth-efficient communication systems capable of capitalizing on available forms of diversity. This tutorial focuses on linear complex field (LCF) coding - a powerful tool that complements the traditional Galois field (GF) coding, in enabling diversity transmissions over single- and multi-antenna fading channels. Performance and capacity analyses are provided, along with systematic guidelines for constructing LCF encoders, and options available to the designer for selecting LCF decoders. Emphasis is placed on high-performance and high-rate designs, and the emerging performance-rate-complexity trade-offs.