Algebraic Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Space-Time Codes for Digital Broadcasting in SFN

Lately, different methods for broadcasting future digital TV in a Single Frequency Network (SFN) have been under an intensive study. To improve the transmission to also cover suburban and rural areas, a hybrid scheme may be used. In hybrid transmission, the signal is transmitted both from a satellite and from a terrestrial site. In 2008, Y. Nasser et al. proposed to use a double layer 3D Space-Time (ST) code in the hybrid 4 × 2 MIMO transmission of digital TV. In this paper, alternative codes with simpler structure are proposed for the 4×2 hybrid system, and new codes are constructed for the 3 × 2 system.