Patent ID: 7469015

Claim:
Method of transmitting a signal composed of a plurality of symbols from n e transmitting antennas, n e being a whole number greater than or equal to 2, the method comprising the steps of: performing a linear pre-encoding operation on the symbols to be transmitted so as to generate, for each burst of m consecutive symbols to be transmitted, m linear combinations of symbols, m being a whole number greater than or equal to n e , the linear pre-encoding operation consisting in applying to each vector of m consecutive symbols to be transmitted a complex orthonormal pre-encoding matrix of dimension m×m so as to create the m linear combinations of symbols, and for each burst of m consecutive symbols to be transmitted, coding the m linear combinations according to a space-time coding so as to transmit one after the other blocks of q coded linear combinations, q being a whole number smaller than or equal to m, each block of q coded linear combinations being transmitted from q′ transmitting antennas, q′ being a whole number greater than or equal to q, each of the coded linear combinations of the block of q coded linear combinations being transmitted during q″ consecutive temporal transmitting intervals specific to the block from one of the n e transmitting antennas, q″ being a whole number greater than or equal to q, wherein the pre-encoding matrix is the Kronecker product of a Hadamard matrix of order m k by a matrix of the Special Unitary group SU(k), k being a whole number greater than or equal to 2.