Embedded Rank Distance Codes for ISI channels

Designs for transmit alphabet constrained space-time codes naturally lead to questions about the design of rank distance codes. Recently, diversity embedded multi-level space-time codes for flat fading channels have been designed from sets of binary matrices with rank distance guarantees over the binary field by mapping them onto QAM and PSK constellations. In this paper we demonstrate that diversity embedded space-time codes for fading Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) channels can be designed with provable rank distance guarantees. As a corollary we obtain an asymptotic characterization of the fixed transmit alphabet rate-diversity trade-off for multiple antenna fading ISI channels. The key idea is to construct and analyze properties of binary matrices with a particular structure induced by ISI channels.