Simply decoded efficient full‐rate space–time block codes over correlated Rician fading channels

A novel technique is presented to design efficient full‐rate space–time block codes (STBCs) over correlated Rician fading channels. The authors first derive a formula for the achievable information rate of a linear dispersion coded multi‐input single‐output system as a function of correlation at the transmitter in a Rician fading channel. In addition, the authors obtain the bit‐error‐rate (BER) equations for this system, when multiple phase shift keying and multiple quadrature amplitude modulation schemes are used at the transmitter. Therefore with regard to derived formulae and using a genetic algorithm, a method is presented to construct STBCs over correlated Rician fading channels. The efficient designed STBCs for two and four transmit antennas enjoy full‐rate, simple structure, simple processing at the receiver, better BER performance than associated orthogonal STBCs at practical signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs) and higher achievable information rate than them at all SNRs.