IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO.
7, JULY 2008
Single-Symbol ML Decoding for Orthogonal and
Quasi-Orthogonal STBC in Clipped MIMO-OFDM
Systems Using a Clipping Noise Model with
Gaussian Approximation
Zhefeng Li and Xiang-Gen Xia
Abstract—An efficient way to reduce the peak-to-average
power ratio (PAPR) in OFDM systems is clipping. After the
clipping in an MIMO-OFDM system, the additive noise may
not be white. In this paper, we develop fast (single-symbol)
ML decoding algorithms for orthogonal space-time block codes
(OSTBC) and (linearly transformed) quasi orthogonal space-
time block codes (QOSTBC) in clipped MIMO-OFDM systems
by using a clipping noise model with Gaussian approximation.
By using the statistics of the clipping distortions, our newly
developed fast ML decoding algorithms improve the performance
for clipped MIMO-OFDM systems with OSTBC and QOSTBC
while the decoding complexities are not increased. Simulation
results are presented to illustrate the improvement.
Index Terms—Clipping noise, MIMO-OFDM systems, orthog-
onal and quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes, single-symbol
ML decoding.
I. I NTRODUCTION
S PACE-TIME coded MIMO-OFDM systems have recently
attracted much attention for broadband wireless com-
munications including recent IEEE standards 802.11n and
802.16e. Among the space-time codes used in MIMO-OFDM
systems, orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) [1]- [5]
and quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes (QOSTBC) [8]-
[18] play important roles since they can achieve full spatial
diversity and have fast ML decoding algorithms [1]- [18] when
the additive noise is white. An important issue for OFDM
systems is their high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and
it is important to reduce the PAPR in a practical (power
efficient) system. One of the most efficient ways to reduce
the PAPR is clipping [19] that, however, induces clipping
noise and the induced clipping noise in an MIMO-OFDM
system may not be white and thus the fast ML decoding for an
OSTBC or QOSTBC coded system may not hold. When the
additive noise is not white, ML decoding for spatially colored
noised [29] needs to be considered.
In this paper, we consider clipped MIMO-OFDM systems
where OSTBC or QOSTBC is used. By applying the clipping
Paper approved by J. Wang, the Editor for Wireless Spread Spectrum of the
IEEE Communications Society. Manuscript received August 29, 2006; revised
December 12, 2006. This work was supported in part by the Air Force Office
of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under Grant No. FA9550-05-1-0161 and the
National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-0325180.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (e-mail: {zli,
xxia}@ee.udel.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TCOMM.2008.060485.
0090-6778/08$25.00 
c 2008 IEEE
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1127
noise model from Bussgang’s theorem used in, for example
[20]- [27], we derive fast (single-symbol) ML decoding algo-
rithms for OSTBC and QOSTBC in clipped MIMO-OFDM
systems. Interestingly, the fast ML decoding properties for
OSTBC and rotated QOSTBC [1]- [18] in MIMO-OFDM sys-
tems without clipping are still maintained in clipped MIMO-
OFDM systems. It should be emphasized that the newly
developed fast ML decoding for rotated QOSTBC proposed
in [11]- [18] for MIMO channels with white noise still has the
single-symbol (or complex symbol-wise) decoding property in
clipped MIMO-OFDM systems. Note that an algorithm of ML
detection for nonlinear distorted signals in a single antenna
OFDM system was proposed through an iterative manner in
[28]. This paper, on the other hand, is for space-time coded
MIMO-OFDM systems and fully takes the advantage of the
structures of OSTBC and QOSTBC.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II-A, we
describe a space-time coded MIMO-OFDM system model.
In Section II-B, we briefly review the fast ML decodings of
OSTBC and general linear transformed QOSTBC developed in
[18] that achieves the optimal diversity product and possesses
the single-symbol ML decoding. In Section III, we briefly
review the clipping noise model described in [20]- [27]. In
Section IV, we present fast (single-symbol) ML decoding
for OSTBC in clipped MIMO-OFDM systems. In Section
V, we present fast (single-symbol) ML decoding for linearly
transformed QOSTBC in clipped MIMO-OFDM systems.
Finally, in Section VI, we present some simulation results. In
what follows, bold-face English letters represent vectors and
matrices and non-bold-face English letters represent scalars
unless otherwise it is specified.
II. OSTBC AND QOSTBC C ODED MIMO-OFDM
S YSTEM
Let us first describe a space-time coded MIMO-OFDM
channel/signal model.
A. Signal Model
Consider an MIMO frequency-selective Rayleigh fading
channel with Mt transmit antennas, Mr receive antennas,
and L independent propagation paths between each pair of
transmit and receive antennas. We assume that the channel
is quasi-static or called block fading channel, i.e., the channel
 1128 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2008

coefficients remain fixed through one code block. The channel assumed σn2 = 1. Each signal in (5) can be stacked into the
impulse response is denoted by vector form as

L−1
 ρ
hi,j (t) = αi,j (l)δ(t − τl ), (1) Yi (n) = C(n)Hi (n) + Ni (n), (6)
Mt
l=0

where j and i denote the jth transmit antenna and the ith where Yi (n) = (Yi1 (n), Yi2 (n), · · · , YiMb (n))T and Ni (n) =
receive antenna for j = 1, 2, · · · , Mt and i = 1, 2, · · · , Mr , (Ni1 (n), Ni2 (n), · · · , NiMb (n))T . For Mr receive antennas, let
respectively, l denotes the lth propagation path between each ⎛ ⎞
C(n) 0 0 ··· 0
pair of transmit and receive antennas, l = 0, 1, · · · , L − 1, τl ⎜ 0 C(n) 0 ··· 0 ⎟
is the corresponding time delay of each path. For Rayleigh ⎜ ⎟
⎜ .. . .. . .. . .. .. ⎟
fading, the channel coefficient αi,j (l) is a zero-mean complex X(n) = ⎜ ⎜ . . ⎟
⎟ .
Gaussian random variable with variance σl2 . We assume that ⎜ . ⎟
⎝ 0 0 . . C(n) 0 ⎠
αi,j (l) are i.i.d. random variables for any i, j, l. In order to 0 0 ... 0 C(n) M M ×M M
normalize the received signal power, the variances σl2 are set r b r
(7)
t
L−1
to satisfy l=0 σl2 = 1 and for convenience we use equal Then, the overall vector-matrix form of the transmit-receive
power delay profile for multipaths, and thus σl2 = L1 . signal model at the nth subcarrier becomes
For an MIMO-OFDM system with N subcarriers, the ⎛ ⎞
corresponding channel frequency response for the nth OFDM Y1 (n)
subcarrier is given by ⎜ Y2 (n) ⎟
ρ
⎜ ⎟
Y(n) = ⎜ .. ⎟= X(n)H(n) + N(n).
L−1
 ⎝ . ⎠ Mt
2πn
Hi,j (n) = αi,j (l) exp(−i τl ), (2) YMr (n)
Ts
l=0
√ Since all signals across all different subcarriers are indepen-
where i = −1, n represents the nth subcarrier, n = dently encoded, the clipping distortions in later discussions
0, 1, 2, · · · , N − 1, and Ts is the duration of one OFDM are also independent across all different subcarriers. For con-
symbol. In the following sections, Hi,j represents a vector venience, we only focus on a single subcarrier and drop the
of (Hi,j (0), Hi,j (1), · · · , Hi,j (N − 1))T , where T stands for subcarrier index n:
transpose. For convenience, we also represent a vector of

(Hi,1 (n), Hi,2 (n), · · · , Hi,Mt (n))T as Hi (n) and ρ

Y= XH + N. (8)
⎛ ⎞ Mt
H1 (n)
⎜ H2 (n) ⎟ If the additive noises are Gaussian, the conditional random
⎜ ⎟ vector (Y|X, H) is a vector of joint Gaussian random vari-
H(n) = ⎜ .. ⎟. (3)
⎝ . ⎠ ables. The ML decoding for joint Gaussian random variables
HMr (n) is as in [29]

For a space-time coded MIMO-OFDM system, we represent ρ ρ

Ĉ = arg min(Y − XH)H Σ−1 (Y − XH), (9)
a coded symbol sent from the nth subcarrier at the jth transmit C∈C Mt Mt
antenna during the tth OFDM symbol period as Cjt (n) for
where Σ is a covariance matrix of the random vector
t = 1, 2, · · · , Mb . The encoded space-time block code at the
(Y|X, H), and the decoded codeword Ĉ belongs to C that is
nth subcarrier is represented by
⎛ ⎞ a set of space-time codewords from a given space-time block
C11 (n) C21 (n) · · · CM 1
t
(n) code.
⎜ C12 (n) C22 (n) · · · CM 2
(n) ⎟ When the additive noises are white, the covariance matrix
⎜ t ⎟
C(n) = ⎜ .. .. .. .. ⎟ , becomes Σ = σn2 IMr Mb , where Im is the m × m identity
⎝ . . . . ⎠
matrix, and the ML decoding is simplified as
C1Mb (n) C2Mb (n) · · · CM Mb
t
(n) M ×M

b t
(4) ρ
Ĉ = arg min Y − XH, (10)
where n = 0, 1, 2, · · · , N − 1, and space-time codes are C∈C Mt
independent across N subcarriers.
At the receiver, after the cyclic prefix removal and FFT, the where the norm  ·  is the Euclidean distance.
received frequency domain signal of the nth subcarrier at the
ith receive antenna in the tth OFDM symbol period is B. OSTBC and QOSTBC Coded MIMO-OFDM

Mt We next briefly review an OSTBC coded system and a
t ρ 
Yi (n) = C t (n)Hi,j (n)+Nit (n), i = 1, 2, · · · , Mr . linearly transformed QOSTBC coded system [18] and their
Mt j=1 j
corresponding fast decoding algorithms.
(5)
The simplest OSTBC is the following Alamouti code for
The normalization factor Mρt is used to normalize the power
two transmit antennas of block size Mb = 2:
of the received signal, in which ρ is the signal-to-noise ratio  
(SNR) at the receiver. Nit (n) is the additive white Gaussian S1 S2
C= , (11)
noise (AWGN) at the nth subcarrier and its variance σn2 is −S2∗ S1∗ 2×2

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 LI and XIA: SINGLE-SYMBOL ML DECODING FOR ORTHOGONAL AND QUASI-ORTHOGONAL STBC IN CLIPPED MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS 1129

where S1 and S2 are two independent information symbols. first shortcoming is that the rank/diversity order of the above
When the above code is used in (4) for each subcarrier, at the QOSTBC is only 2. The second shortcoming is that, if (18)
receiver, when the noise is AWGN, the ML decoding (10) can is plugged into the ML decoding objective function (10) or
be expanded as equivalently (12), at the receiver, when the noise is AWGN, the

ML decoding becomes symbol-pair-wise decoding due to the
ρ
Ĉ = arg min{tr(YH Y) − tr(YH XH + HH XH Y) cross terms of Si and Si+2 in (19) in the objective functions.
C∈C Mt
ρ In order to achieve the full diversity, 4 in this case, symbol
+ tr(HH (XH X)H)}, (12) constellation rotations for Si+2 from Si has been proposed
Mt
in [11]–[13], and optimal rotation angles have been obtained
where H stands for the transpose and complex conjugate. From in [13] to maximize the diversity product, where the ML
the orthogonality of (11), we have decoding is still symbol-pair-wise decoding.
By splitting the real and imaginary parts of Si and Si+2
CH C = (|S1 |2 + |S2 |2 )I2 (13)
in the P and Q terms in (19) and rotating these real and
and imaginary parts properly [14]–[18], the above symbol-pair-
XH X = (|S1 |2 + |S2 |2 )I2Mr . (14) wise ML decoding can be reduced to symbol-wise decoding
(single-symbol decoding) and in the meantime, the diversity
Thus, we have product can be maximized. Optimal rotations for square QAM

2 signal constellations were obtained in [14]–[17] and general
ρ
Ĉ = arg min Y − XH2 ←→ arg min fi (Si ), optimal linear transformation for general rectangular signal
C∈C Mt S1 ,S2
i=1 constellations were obtained in [18]. In the following, we
(15) briefly describe the general optimal linear transformation
where fi (x) is a known quadratic form of variable x. Thus, presented in [18] for QOSTBC to achieve both symbol-wise
the decoding is symbol by symbol, which is called symbol- ML decoding and maximal diversity product.
wise decoding or single-symbol decoding. The symbol rate is The main idea is to linearly transform the real and imaginary
defined by the ratio of the number of information symbols over parts of each two information symbols to split the P and Q
the block size Mb . Clearly, the symbol rate for Alamouti code terms in (19) into linear summations of quadratic terms of two
is 1 and it was shown in [6] that symbol rate 1 is already real variables. Let S denote a rectangular QAM constellation
maximal. For more than 2 transmit antennas, it was shown of total N1 N2 points:
in [7] that the maximal possible symbol rate for (complex)
OSTBC is 3/4 and further conjectured in [7] that the maximal n1 d n2 d
S = { +i ni ∈ {−(2Ni − 1), −(2Ni − 3), · · · ,
possible symbol rate for (complex) OSTBC (even with linear 2 2
processing) for Mt transmit antennas is upper bounded by −1, 1, · · · , 2Ni − 3, 2Ni − 1}, i = 1, 2}, (20)
 M2t  + 1 where d is the distance of the closest points in each direction.
. (16)
2 M2t  The encoding is the following.
Firstly, binary information bits are mapped to 4 information
Some systematic constructions of (complex) OSTBC with the symbols in S: Zi = ai + ibi ∈ S where ai and bi are real for
above rates have been presented in [3]–[5] and closed-form i = 1, 2, 3, 4.
constructions have been given in [5]. Then, linearly transform 8 real numbers ai and bi for i =
In order to increase the symbol rates for more than 2 1, 2, 3, 4 into another 8 real numbers pi and qi for i = 1, 2, 3, 4
transmit antennas, quasi-OSTBC (QOSTBC) have been pro- as follows:
posed in [8]–[10] by relaxing the orthogonality across all
the columns. One of the equivalent forms of QOSTBC for (pi , qi , pi+2 , qi+2 )T = U(ai , bi , ai+2 , bi+2 )T , i = 1, 2,
4 transmit antennas and block size Mb = 4 is (21)
⎛ ⎞ where U is a 4 × 4 matrix with all real entries and defined as
S1 S2 S3 S4
⎜ −S2∗ S1∗ −S4∗ S3∗ ⎟ [18].
C=⎜ ⎝ S3
⎟ , (17) Finally, at the transmitter, form new 4 complex symbols
S4 S1 S2 ⎠
from the above pi and qi : Si = pi + iqi for i = 1, 2, 3, 4.
−S4∗ S3∗ −S2∗ S1∗ 4×4
Then, these 4 symbols Si are input to the QOSTBC C in (17)
where Si , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, are 4 independent information to be connected to a subcarrier in an MIMO-OFDM system.
symbols and the symbol rate is 1. In this case, After doing so, the ML decoding objective function at the
  receiver then becomes:
P I2 QI2

CH C = , (18) ρ
QI2 P I2 arg min Y − XH2
C∈C Mt
where ←→ arg min fi (ai , bi ), i = 1, 2, 3, 4, (22)
4 2 ai ,bi
 
P = |Si |2 and Q = ∗
(Si Si+2 + Si∗ Si+2 ). (19) where fi (x, y) are known quadratic forms of real variables x
i=1 i=1 and y.
Due to the lack of the orthogonality, there are two shortcom- As a remark, as long as the decoding objective function
ings of the above QOSTBC compared to an OSTBC. The is composed of some linear functions of P and Q in (19)

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 1130 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2008

−1
10
where A0 , A1 , ..., AN −1 are the original complex information
symbols transmitted through N subcarriers.
By oversampling the above signal s(t) at a time interval
−2
10 length Δt = Ts /(JN ), where J is a oversampling factor, we
get a discrete time domain signal
1
sk = √ s(kT /(JN )) = rk exp(iφk ), k = 0, . . . , JN − 1,
BER

−3
10 J
(24)
where rk is the amplitude of sk and φk is the phase.
The clipping process can be represented by
−4
10 
rk , if rk ≤ Amax
2 × 1 OSTBC r̃k = , (25)
4 × 1 QOSTBC without linear transformation
Amax , if rk > Amax
−5
4 × 1 QOSTBC with linear transformation s̃k = r̃k exp(iφk ). (26)
10
14 16 18 20 22 24
SNR(dB) where Amax is the maximum amplitude of signals allowed by
a nonlinear amplifier. If the amplitude of signal sn is above
Fig. 1. BER performance comparison of OSTBC and QOSTBC in MIMO- Amax , it is clipped. The clipping ratio γ is defined as
OFDM systems without clipping and with 1 receive antenna and 16QAM
modulation. Amax
γ= √ , (27)
Pin
of complex symbols Si and some linear functions of Si and where Pin is the average signal constellation power before
Si∗ for i = 1, 2, 3, 4, the above optimal linear transformation clipping, i.e., the mean power of C(n) in (6). In this paper,
theory applies, which will be the case for clipped MIMO- we use normalized information symbols at the transmitter so
OFDM systems as we shall see later. that Pin = 1. The clipping ratio is a very important factor that
affects the BER performance and PAPR after the clipping.
C. Performance of OSTBC and QOSTBC in MIMO-OFDM After clipping, sequence s̃k passes through a low-pass
without Clipping equivalent band pass filter (BPF) [20]. The out-of-band radia-
We next see a simulation comparison of OSTBC and tion is eliminated. However the distortion caused by clipping
linearly transformed QOSTBC in MIMO-OFDM systems. can not be eliminated by the filter.
In the simulation, the MIMO frequency-selective Rayleigh The clipped time domain signal x(k) can be modelled as the
channel is characterized by a two-ray, i.e., L = 2, equal summation of an attenuated signal component and the clipping
power delay profile in which the second path delay τ is distortion [20]- [26] as
0.5μs. An OFDM with N = 64 subcarriers is used. The (k) = αx(k) + d(k),
x (28)
time duration of one OFDM symbol is Ts = 3.2μs. In our
simulation, the signal constellation S is always 16QAM and where α is the attenuation factor defined as
the throughput is 4 bits/s/Hz. In Fig. 1, the upper curve √
−γ 2 πγ
marked by × is for the OSTBC over an 2 × 1 MIMO-OFDM α=1−e + erfc(γ), (29)
2
system, i.e., Mt = 2, Mr = 1 with diversity order 2. The
middle curve marked by ◦ is for the QOSTBC without the and d(k) is the clipping distortion. Thus, the frequency domain
linear transformation over a 4 × 1 MIMO-OFDM system, i.e., signal converted from the clipped time domain signal x (k) can
Mt = 4, Mr = 1, which does not have full diversity but be written as
 = αX(n) + D(n), (30)
diversity order 2. The lowest curve marked by ∇ is for the X(n)
linearly transformed QOSTBC with full diversity order 4 as
where X(n) and D(n) are the DFTs of x(k) and d(k),
in Section II-B for the same system as the QOSTBC. One 
respectively. Note that, if X(n) is not i.i.d., X(n) is not i.i.d.
can clearly see the performance difference. Because linearly
either. In this case, channel interleaving and deinterleaving
transformed QOSTBC achieves highest diversity, in this case
can eliminate the statistical dependence of X(n). Thus, we
it outperforms all other two cases.
assume that X(n) is i.i.d. From [20]- [26], the distortion in
the frequency domain is a complex Gaussian random variable
III. C LIPPING N OISE M ODEL IN AN OFDM S YSTEM
with zero mean. In [27], the clipping distortion variance is
In this section, we recall the clipped signal and clipping calculated as
noise models described in [20]- [27] and then extend this 2
2
model developed for SISO systems to MIMO systems which σD = Pin (1 − e−γ − α2 ). (31)
results in a spatially colored noise model. For an OFDM
Thus, at the receiver, the received signal in the frequency
system, the time-domain baseband signal can be represented
domain is
as

N −1 ρ ρ
1  Y (n) = α H(n)X(n) + H(n)D(n) + N (n),
s(t) = √ An exp(i2πnt/Ts ), 0 ≤ t ≤ Ts , (23) Mt Mt
N n=0 (32)

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 LI and XIA: SINGLE-SYMBOL ML DECODING FOR ORTHOGONAL AND QUASI-ORTHOGONAL STBC IN CLIPPED MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS 1131

where N (n) is the additive Gaussian noise at the nth subcar- IV. S INGLE -S YMBOL ML D ECODING FOR OSTBC IN
rier and independent of the distortion. So, (Y (n)|X(n), H(n)) C LIPPED MIMO-OFDM S YSTEMS
is a Gaussian random variable and its variance is Without loss of generality, we only consider Alamouti code
ρ
|H(n)|2 σD2
+ σn2 , (33) in (11). In this case, the distortion matrix D(n) in (35) is
Mt  
D1 D2
where Mt = 1 in the single antenna case. We assume that the D= . (36)
−D2∗ D1∗
receiver knows the clipping level as a system design parameter
Since the information symbols Si in (11) are independent
and thus the receiver can calculate the attenuation factor and
in terms of i, the corresponding distortions Di are also
the clipping distortion variance as (29) and (31), respectively.
independent in terms of i. Thus, based on the model described
From the above equation, one can see the difference between
in Section III, Di are independent complex Gaussian random
the channel AWGN and the clipping distortion. The distortion
variables in terms of i (in a fixed subcarrier) with zero mean
caused by the clipping at the transmitter depends on the
and covariances:
transmitted signal and increases with the transmitted signal
power. Since the distortion is passed through the channel, the E[Di ] = 0, E[Di Dj ] = 0, and

distortion is faded through the channel as a transmitted signal 0, if i = j
is. E[Di Dj∗ ] = 2 , (37)
σD , if i = j
Although the above model is for single antenna OFDM
systems, it also applies to any pair transmit and receive where σD is given in (31).
antennas in MIMO-OFDM systems. For an MIMO-OFDM
system, with C(n) in (4), the signal model in (6) becomes A. Single Receive Antenna

When there is only one receive antenna, the channel is H =
ρ 
Yi (n) = C(n)Hi (n) + Ni (n) (H1,1 , H1,2 )T and the received signal is

Mt

ρ
= α
ρ
C(n)Hi (n) +
ρ
D(n)Hi (n) Y= (αCH + DH) + N, (38)
Mt Mt Mt
+Ni (n). (34) where N is white Gaussian noise and independent of the
distortion D. Using the clipping noise model in Section III and
where (37), (Y|C, H) are joint Gaussian random variables whose
⎛ ⎞
D11 (n) D21 (n) ··· 1
DM (n) covariance matrix
t
⎜ D12 (n) D22 (n) ··· 2
DM (n) ⎟ ρ
⎜ t ⎟ Σ= E[DHHH DH ] + E[NNH ] = BI2 , (39)
D(n) = ⎜ .. .. .. .. ⎟ Mt
⎝ . . . . ⎠
ρ 2 2
D1Mb (n) D2Mb (n) · · · DM
Mb
(n) where B = Mt σD (|H1,1 | + |H1,2 |2 ) + σn2 . Thus, the ML
t Mb ×Mt decoding is
(35)

is the distortion matrix, and Djt (n) is the distortion at the jth ρ
Ĉ = arg min Y − α XH2 . (40)
transmit antenna, the tth OFDM symbol period, and the nth C∈C Mt
subcarrier, and is a Gaussian random variable with zero mean Comparing (40) with the ML decoding (15) without the
and variance in (31). The detailed form of D(n) depends on clipping, there is only a known scaling constant α in the ML
the detailed form of the STBC C(n). In the following, OSTBC decoding with the clipping and this constant can be absorbed
and QOSTBC for C(n) will be considered. There are at least into the channel H. Thus, the above ML decoding (40) with
two ways to decode (34). One is to directly decode C(n) the clipping has the same fast symbol-wise decoding as the
without the consideration of the clipping distortion D(n). In ML decoding (15) without the clipping.
this case, the AWGN is only considered and the fast decoding
algorithms described in Section II-B apply. The other is to
B. Multiple Receive Antennas
decode C(n) by considering the clipping noise in the overall
additive noise For multiple receive antennas, the covariance matrix of the

received signal Y given C and H can be calculated as follows
ρ
D(n)Hi (n) + Ni (n) from (37). From (34), it is not hard to see
Mt ρ
Cov(Yi , Yj |C, H) = E[DHi HH H
j D ] + E[Ni Nj ]
H
that may not be white. Thus, ML decoding for spatially Mt
colored noise [29] needs to be considered. The goal of the = Bij I2 , (41)
following discussions is to derive fast ML decoding algorithms
where
for OSTBC and QOSTBC in clipped MIMO-OFDM systems  ρ 2 2 2 2
when the above clipping noise model is used, and we show Bij = Mt σD (|Hi,1 | + |Hi,2 | ) + σn , if i = j,
(42)
ρ 2 ∗ ∗
that the fast (complex) symbol-wise decoding algorithms for Mt σD (Hi,1 Hj,1 + Hi,2 Hj,2 ), if i =
 j.
the OSTBC and linearly transformed QOSTBC described in Thus,
Section II-B can be maintained. Since we consider all N
subcarriers independently, the subcarrier index n is dropped Σ = Cov(Y, Y|C, H) = (Cov(Yi , Yj |C, H))1≤i,j≤Mr
in what follows as before. = (Bij I2 )1≤i,j≤Mr , (43)

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 1132 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2008

which is essentially different from the scalared identity matrix distortions Di , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, are also independent each
in (39) for a single antenna system. other. When the linearly transformed QOSTBC in Section
Lemma 1: If 2M × 2M (block) matrix Σ = II-B is used, since Si are obtained from linearly transforming
(Bij I2 )1≤i,j≤M with constants Bij has an inverse, then independent symbols Zi , complex symbols Si , i = 1, 2, 3, 4,
its inverse Σ−1 also has the form Σ−1 = (Aij I2 )1≤i,j≤M in general, may not be uncorrelated. However, when the linear
where Aij are constants. transformation is unitary, complex symbols Si , i = 1, 2, 3, 4,
Its proof is in Appendix I. are uncorrelated too. Based on this observation, in what
With this lemma, we next derive the ML decoding (9) when follows, we only consider the case when a signal constellation
Σ has the above form (43) and then Σ−1 = (Aij I2 )1≤i,j≤Mr . S in Section II-B is a square QAM, i.e., N1 = N2 in (20).
Let
In this case, the linear transform U in (21) between the
ρ real/imagrinary parts ai , bi of Zi for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and the
Vi = Yi − α CHi , i = 1, 2, · · · , Mr . (44)
Mt real/imagrinary parts pi , qi of Si for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 is unitary
Then, [18]. Thus, all reals pi , qi for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 are uncorrelated
 and therefore complex symbols Si for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 are
Ĉ = arg min ViH Aij I2 Vj uncorrelated. Hence, in this case, it is reasonable to assume
C∈C
i j that the distortions Di for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 are also uncorrelated,

= arg min Aij ViH Vj . (45) which has been verified by our numerous simulations. Since
C∈C
i j they are Gaussian with zero mean, the distortions Di for
Similar to (12)-(15), we have i = 1, 2, 3, 4 are independent and thus we also have (37) for
i, j = 1, 2, 3, 4. With (37), by some algebra, the conditional
2
 covariance matrix between the total noises at the ith and the
Aij ViH Vj = fi,j,l (Sl ), (46) jth receive antennas can be calculated as
l=1

where each fi,j,l (x) is a known quadratic form of complex Cov(Yi , Yj |C, H) = E[DHi HH H H
j D ] + E[Ni Nj ]
⎛ ⎞
variable x. Thus, the ML decoding of the OSTBC in the Aij 0 Bij 0
clipped MIMO-OFDM system is ⎜ 0 Aij 0 B ⎟
= ⎜ ij ⎟
(49)
,


⎝ Bij 0 Aij 0 ⎠
ρ H −1 ρ
arg min(Y − α XH) Σ (Y − α XH) 0 Bij 0 Aij
C∈C Mt Mt
2 where
←→ arg min fi (Si ), (47) Aij =
S1 ,S2 ⎧
i=1 ρ 2 2
⎪
⎪ Mt σD (|Hi,1 | + |Hi,2 |2 + |Hi,3 |2 + |Hi,4 |2 ) + σn2 ,
where each fi (x) is a known quadratic form of complex ⎨
if i = j,
variable x, which is similar to the ML decoding of the OSTBC ⎪
ρ
σ 2
(H H ∗
+ H H ∗
+ H H ∗
+ H ∗
Hj,4 ),
⎪
⎩ Mt D
i,1 j,1 i,2 j,2 i,3 j,3 i,4
in an MIMO-OFDM system without the clipping, i.e., symbol- if i = j,
wise decoding. (50)
ρ 2 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Bij = σD (Hi,1 Hj,3 + Hi,3 Hj,1 + Hi,2 Hj,4 + Hi,4 Hj,2 ).
V. S INGLE -S YMBOL ML D ECODING FOR QOSTBC AND Mt
(51)
L INEARLY T RANSFORMED QOSTBC IN C LIPPED
Thus, the conditional covariance matrix of the received signals
MIMO-OFDM S YSTEMS
from all the receive antennas is the following block matrix
We now consider the QOSTBC (17) in each subcarrier for
a clipped MIMO-OFDM system, where the complex symbols Σ = Cov(Y, Y|C, H) = (Cov(Yi , Yj |C, H))1≤i,j≤Mr
Si = pi + iqi , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, may (for linearly transformed = (Σij )1≤i,j≤Mr , (52)
QOSTBC) or may not (original QOSTBC) be obtained by
linearly transforming 4 independent information symbols Zi = where ⎛ ⎞
Aij 0 Bij 0
ai + ibi , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, via (21). In this case, the distrotion ⎜ 0 Aij 0 Bij ⎟
matrix D in (35) is ⎜
Σij = ⎝ ⎟ (53)
⎛ ⎞ Bij 0 Aij 0 ⎠
D1 D2 D3 D4 0 Bij 0 Aij
⎜ −D2∗ D1∗ −D4∗ D3∗ ⎟
D=⎜ ⎝ D3 D4 D1 D2 ⎠ .
⎟ (48) is the (i, j) block in Σ.
Lemma 2: If a block matrix Σ has the form in (52) with
−D4∗ D3∗ −D2∗ D1∗
constants Aij and Bij , 1 ≤ i, j ≤ Mr , and has an inverse,
Similar to the OSTBC case in Section IV, in order to derive then its inverse matrix Σ−1 is also a block matrix of the form
the ML decoding of a QOSTBC in a clipped MIMO-OFDM ⎛⎛ ⎞⎞
Fij 0 Gij 0
system, we need to calculate the covariance matrix of the ⎜⎜ 0 Fij 0 Gij ⎟ ⎟
total noise terms including both the clipped noise and AWGN Σ−1 = ⎜ ⎜
⎝⎝ Gij
⎟⎟
0 Fij 0 ⎠⎠
terms. To do so, we need to calculate the correlations between 0 Gij 0 Fij
the distortions Di for i = 1, 2, 3, 4. When the information 1≤i,j≤M r

symbols Si , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, are independent each other, the for some constants Fij and Gij , 1 ≤ i, j ≤ Mr .

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 LI and XIA: SINGLE-SYMBOL ML DECODING FOR ORTHOGONAL AND QUASI-ORTHOGONAL STBC IN CLIPPED MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS 1133

Its proof is in Appendix II. As a remark, in the above ML decoding, the inverse Σ−1
We next derive the ML decoding (9) for QOSTBC C and of the covariance matrix Σ of the form in (52) is needed.
Σ with the form (52). Let Although the size of Σ is 4Mr × 4Mr , it is structured and

its inverse is equivalent to the inverse of a 2Mr × 2Mr block
ρ
Vi = Yi − α CHi , (54) matrix with 2 × 2 block matrices in set M defined in (61) as
Mt
explained in the proof of Lemma 2 in Appendix II. Note that
and every element Mij in set M can be represented by Mij =
⎛ ⎞ Aij I2 + Bij J2 where Aij and Bij are two complex numbers
B1,1 B1,2 ··· B1,Mr
⎜ B2,1 B2,2 ··· B2,Mr ⎟ and  
⎜ ⎟ 0 1
Σ−1 = ⎜ .. .. .. .. ⎟. (55) J2 = .
⎝ . . . . ⎠ 1 0
BMr ,1 BMr ,2 · · · BMr ,Mr
Also note that not only the matrix multiplications, additions,
Then, the ML decoding becomes and inverses are closed in M, but also the matrix multipli-
 cation of elements in M is commutative, i.e., M1ij M2ij =
Ĉ = arg min ViH Bi,j Vj . (56)
C∈C M2ij M1ij when M1ij , M2ij ∈ M. The numerical operations
i j
over set M are similar to that over a number field. Thus,
In order to simplify the above ML decoding, we first have the 4Mr × 4Mr matrix Σ is essentially equivalent to an Mr × Mr
following lemma. matrix and therefore its inverse is essentially an inverse of
Lemma 3: If matrices Bi,j have the following form Mr × Mr matrix inverse, where Mr is the number of receive
⎛ ⎞ antennas. As a final remark, although Theorem 1 is for a
Fij 0 Gij 0
⎜ 0 linearly transformed QOSTBC, when the linear transformation
Fij 0 Gij ⎟
Bi,j = ⎜
⎝ Gij
⎟, (57) is the identity matrix, the linearly transformed QOSTBC goes
0 Fij 0 ⎠
back to an original QOSTBC. In other words, the result in
0 Gij 0 Fij
Theorem 1 also applies to an original QOSTBC without any
where Fij and Gij  are known constants,
 then ViH Bi,j Vj is linear transformation.
4 2
a linear function of i=1 |Si |2 and i=1 (Si Si+2 ∗
+ Si∗ Si+2 ),
and Si , Si∗ , i = 1, 2, 3, 4, i.e., VI. S IMULATION R ESULTS
4
 As we mentioned at the end of Section III, for an clipped
ViH Bi,j Vj = gi,j,1 ( |Sl |2 ) MIMO-OFDM system, there are at least two ways for the de-
l=1 coding. One (obvious one) is to decode it without considering
2
∗ the clipping, i.e., the clipping distortion is not considered. The
+gi,j,2 ( (Sl Sl+2 + Sl∗ Sl+2 ))
other is to decode it by considering the clipping distortion
l=1
as what we have done in this paper. In this section, we
+gi,j,3 (S1 , · · · , S4 , S1∗ , · · · , S4∗ ), (58)
present some numerical simulations to compare the perfor-
where gi,j,1 (x) and gi,j,2 (x) are two known linear functions mance difference of these two decoding methods for OSTBC
of variable x, and gi,j,3 (·) is also a known linear function of and QOSTBC coded MIMO-OFDM systems with clipping.
all its arguments. In the following simulations, the MIMO frequency-selective
Its proof is in Appendix III. Rayleigh channel is characterized by a two-ray, i.e., L = 2,
From Lemma 2 and then Lemma 3, the ML decoding equal power delay profile in which the second path delay τ
objective function in (58) of a QOSTBC in clipped MIMO- is 0.5μs. An OFDM with N = 64 subcarriers is used. The
OFDM has the same form as that of the QOSTBC in an MIMO time duration of one OFDM symbol is Ts = 3.2μs. We only
system. Therefore, the linear transformation technique for the consider the Alamouti code and the QOSTBC as described in
QOSTBC described in Section II-B for MIMO or MIMO- Section II-B. Since these two codes have the same symbol rate,
OFDM without the clipping also applies to the clipped MIMO- they have the same bit rate if the same signal constellation S
OFDM. In other words, we have the following result. is used. In our simulations, the signal constellation S is always
Theorem 1: By following the encoding steps of linear 16QAM and the throughput is 4 bits/s/Hz.
transformation in Section II-B with independent complex In Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, we, respectively, compare the decoding
information symbols Zi = ai + ibi for i = 1, 2, 3, 4, the ML performances of OSTBC and QOSTBC in clipped MIMO-
decoding of the linearly transformed QOSTBC in a clipped OFDM systems between the original decoding algorithms
MIMO-OFDM system is (complex) symbol-wise decoding, without considering the clipping noise and our newly devel-
i.e., the ML decoding objective function has the following oped ML decoding algorithm with considering the clipping
decomposition noise. In Fig. 2 (a) and 3 (a), we show the performances


4
without adding a convolutional code as a forward error correc-
ρ ρ 
(Y − α XH)H Σ−1 (Y − α XH) = fi (ai , bi ), tion code. In Fig. 2 (b) and Fig. 3 (b), we concatenate a rate
Mt Mt i=1
1/2 convolutional encoder of generator [133,171] as a forward
(59) error correction code with OSTBC or QOSTBC encoder. We
where fi (x, y) are known quadratic forms of real variables x implement the decoding of OSTBC or QOSTBC with hard
and y. outputs and then the hard-decision Viterbi decoder for the

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 1134 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2008

0 0
10 10

γ=1.0 γ=1.0

−1 γ=1.2 −1
γ=1.2
10 10

−2 −2
10 10
BER

BER
γ=1.5 γ=1.5
−3 −3
10 10

−4 −4
10 10
Original Decoding Original Decoding
New Decoding New Decoding
NonClipped NonClipped
−5 −5
10 10
10 12 14 16 18 20 10 12 14 16 18 20
SNR(dB) SNR(dB)

(a) (a)
0 0
10 10
γ=1.0 γ=1.0
−1
10 −1
10

−2
10
γ=1.2 10
−2

−3 γ=1.2
10 γ=1.5
BER

BER

−3
10
−4
10
γ=1.5
−4
10
−5
10

−5
−6 10
10 Original Decoding Original Decoding
New Decoding New Decoding
Nonclipped Nonclipped
−7 −6
10 10
6 8 10 12 14 16 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
SNR(dB) SNR(dB)

(b) (b)
Fig. 2. BER performance comparison of OSTBC in clipped 2 × 2 OFDM Fig. 3. BER performance comparison of QOSTBC in clipped 4 × 2 OFDM
systems: (a) no convolutional code is added; (b) a convolutional code is added. systems: (a) no convolutional code is added; (b) a convolutional code is added.

convolutional code. The dashed lines are for the original
decoding without considering the clipping noise, and the solid
lines are for our newly developed ML decoding algorithms
with considering the clipping noise, and dot lines are for the
nonclipped MIMO-OFDM system with the original decoding.
As one can see, in all cases, our newly developed ML
decoding algorithms always achieve better performance than
the original decoding algorithm does without considering the
clipping noise effect. The reason is that the original decoding
algorithm treats the clipping distortion as a white Gaussian
noise that may not be accurate. For our newly developed
decoding algorithms, we use more accurate statistical model
(the clipping distortion noise may not be white) to describe the
clipping distortion and develop the correlation of the clipping
distortions among received signals. In other words, we use
a more accurate noise model in the decoding that therefore
improves the performance. At a lower clipping ratio, the
clipping threshold is smaller and more signal with more energy
is clipped. Thus, the variance of the clipping distortion is
larger and the clipping distortion becomes more significant and
may become dominating the BER performance. In this case,
our new decoding algorithms based on the clipping distortion
model may achieve a significantly better improvement and the
performance gap between the new and the original decoding
algorithms becomes more significant. On the contrary, at a
high clipping ratio with low SNR, the AWGN dominates the
BER performance, our new decoding performance converges
to the original one. However, if the transmitted signal power
(SNR) is increased, the variance of the clipping distortion is
also linearly increased, and the performance improvement is
increased too.
VII. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have extended a clipping noise model from
an SISO OFDM system to an STBC coded MIMO-OFDM
system and derived a spatially colored noise model for ML
decoding. We have presented the fast ML decoding algorithms
for OSTBC and QOSTBC with or without linear transforma-
tions in clipped MIMO-OFDM systems based on the clipped

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 LI and XIA: SINGLE-SYMBOL ML DECODING FOR ORTHOGONAL AND QUASI-ORTHOGONAL STBC IN CLIPPED MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS 1135

noise model. We have shown that the fast (complex) symbol- Then,
wise decoding of OSTBC and QOSTBC in an MIMO system
is maintained in the ML decoding in clipped MIMO-OFDM ViH Bi,j Vj = ViH (Fij I4 + Gij J4 )Jj
systems. We have presented simulations to show the perfor- = Fij ViH Vj + Gij ViH J4 Vj . (63)
mance improvement by using our newly developed fast ML
The first term in the right hand side of (63) is
decoding when the clipping noise is considered over the one

when the clipping noise is not considered. H H ρ

Vi Vj = Yi Yj − α (YH CHj + HH H
i C Yj )
Mt i
Acknowledgment ρ
+ α2 (HH (CH C)Hj ) (64)
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their Mt i
detailed and useful comments that have helped the presentation and the second term in the right hand side of (63) is
of this paper.
ViH J4 Vj = YiH J4 Yj

A PPENDIX A ρ
−α (YH J4 CHj + HH H
i C J4 Yj )
P ROOF OF L EMMA 1 Mt i
A 2 × 2 matrix Bij I2 is equivalent to a scalar number Bij ρ
+α2 (HH (CH J4 C)Hj ). (65)
in terms of the arithmetic operations of complex numbers. Mt i
Thus matrix Σ is equivalent to (Bij )1≤i,j≤M in terms of While CH C has the form (18) for QOSTBC C in (17), it is
complex number arithmetic operations by using the mapping also easy to check that
from Bij I2 to Bij . Let the inverse matrix of (Bij )1≤i,j≤M be  
(Aij )1≤i,j≤M that is equivalent to (Aij I2 )1≤i,j≤M . Lemma 1 H QI2 P I2
C J4 C = , (66)
is proved. P I2 QI2
where P and Q have the forms in (19). By plugging (18), (19),
A PPENDIX B and (66) into (64) and (65) and then (63), the decomposition
P ROOF OF L EMMA 2 (58) can be obtained and therefore Lemma 3 is proved.
Similar to the proof of Lemma 1, we map a 2×2 matrix AI2
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2008
Zhefeng Li received both the B.S. degree and the
M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Shanghai
Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, in 2001, 2004,
respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D.
degree with the Department of Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark.
His current research interests are space-time coding,
and MIMO and OFDM systems. He was awarded an
National Science Foundation (NSF) Travel Grant in
2007 for attending the ISIT’07.
Xiang-Gen Xia (M’97,S’00) received his B.S. de-
gree in mathematics from Nanjing Normal Univer-
sity, Nanjing, China, and his M.S. degree in mathe-
matics from Nankai University, Tianjin, China, and
his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in
1983, 1986, and 1992, respectively.
He was a Senior/Research Staff Member at
Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California,
during 1995-1996. In September 1996, he joined the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, where he is the Charles Black
Evans Professor. He was a Visiting Professor at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong during 2002-2003, where he is an Adjunct Professor. Before
1995, he held visiting positions in a few institutions. His current research
interests include space-time coding, MIMO and OFDM systems, and SAR
and ISAR imaging. Dr. Xia has over 170 refereed journal articles published
and accepted, and 7 U.S. patents awarded and is the author of the book
Modulated Coding for Intersymbol Interference Channels (New York, Marcel
Dekker, 2000).
Dr. Xia received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early
Career Development (CAREER) Program Award in 1997, the Office of Naval
Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 1998,and the Outstanding Over-
seas Young Investigator Award from the National Nature Science Foundation
of China in 2001. He also received the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award of
the Engineering School of the University of Delaware in 2001. He is currently
an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications,
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, the IEEE Signal Processing
Letters, and the Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN). He was
a guest editor of Space-Time Coding and Its Applications in the EURASIP
Journal of Applied Signal Processing in 2002. He served as an Associate
Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing during 1996 to 2003,
the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing during 2001 to 2004, and the
EURASIP Journal of Applied Signal Processing during 2001 to 2004. He
is also a Member of the Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM) Technical
Committee in the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He is the General Co-
Chair of ICASSP 2005 in Philadelphia.