Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communication link has been theoretically proven to be reliable and capable of achieving high capacity. However, these two advantageous characteristics tend to be addressed separately in many major researches. Researches on various approaches to attain both characteristics in a single MIMO system are still on-going and an established approach is yet to be concluded. To address this problem, in this paper a Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) MIMO enhanced with Rate-Compatible Convolutional (RCPC) codes with Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE)-based detection is proposed. The analytical BER of the system is presented and numerically analyzed. The system performance is analyzed in Nakagami-m fading channel, which provides accuracy and flexibility in matching the signals statistics compared to other fading models. The complexity which arises in the calculations of the RCPC codes parameters is significantly reduced by using equivalent convolutional codes. Results show that the use of high-rate code allows for bandwidth efficiency and at the same time does not severely degrades the system performance. It is also shown that the MMSE-based system outperforms the conventional ZF-based system especially in the low Eb/N0 region and in severe fading conditions.
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