This letter investigates the effects of the Space-Time Block Code (STBC) transmitter diversity and Time Switched Transmitter Diversity (TSTD) schemes while simultaneously considering the time diversity effect derived from Chase combining and the frequency diversity effect for downlink Spread OFDM packet wireless access in a broadband multipath fading channel. The simulation results show that when pilot channel based channel estimation is performed, TSTD improves the required average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio by approximately 1.0 and 0.5 dB compared to one-branch transmission, without and with antenna diversity reception, respectively, while the benefit of STBC is small due to channel estimation error, when the maximum number of retransmissions in Chase combining is three in a 12-path Rayleigh fading channel with the root mean squared delay spread of 0.3 µsec and the maximum Doppler frequency of 20 Hz.

This paper compares the throughput performance employing hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) packet combining, i.e., Chase combining, and Incremental redundancy, considering the frequency diversity effect in the broadband forward-link channel for Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (OFCDM) packet wireless access achieving a peak throughput above 100 Mbps. Simulation results show that the achievable throughput at the average received signal energy per symbol-to-background noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) of 0 and 6 dB employing Incremental redundancy is increased by approximately 35 and 30% compared to that using Chase combining for QPSK and 16QAM data modulation schemes with the coding rate of R = 1/2, respectively, considering a large frequency diversity effect in a 12-path exponential decayed Rayleigh fading channel, since the reduced variations in the received signal level in a broadband channel bring about a larger coding gain in Incremental redundancy. We also show that when adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) is applied, Incremental redundancy is superior to Chase combining since the large coding gain is effective in achieving a large time diversity gain for a low number of retransmissions such as M = 1 or 2 for a maximum Doppler frequency up to fD = 400 Hz. It is demonstrated, nevertheless, that the total throughput when employing Incremental redundancy associated with a near optimum MCS set according to the channel conditions becomes almost identical to that using Chase combining when a large number of retransmissions, M, is allowed, such as M = 10, owing to time diversity along with frequency diversity.