New Signal Designs for Enhanced Spatial Modulation

In this paper, we present three new signal designs for enhanced spatial modulation (ESM), which was recently introduced by the present authors. The basic idea of ESM is to convey information bits not only by the index(es) of the active transmit antenna(s) as in conventional SM, but also by the types of the signal constellations used. The original ESM schemes were designed with reference to single-stream SM and involved one or more secondary modulations in addition to the primary modulation. Compared with single-stream SM, they provided either higher throughput or improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this paper, we focus on multi-stream SM (MSM) and present three new ESM designs leading to increasing SNR gains when they are operated at the same spectral efficiency. The secondary signal constellations used in the first two designs are derived through a single geometric interpolation step in the signal constellation plane, while the third design also makes use of additional constellations derived through a second interpolation step. The new ESM signal designs are described for MIMO systems with four transmit antennas out of which two are active, but we also briefly present extensions to higher numbers of antennas. Theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that the proposed designs provide a significant SNR gain over MSM.