Linear precoding for multi-input systems based on channel estimate and channel statistics

A method for transmitting information comprising:

• providing a communication system including a transmitter having two or more transmit antennas and a receiver having one or more receive antennas, wherein a channel between the transmitter and the receiver has a non-zero effective mean matrix;
• providing an estimate of the effective channel mean matrix;
• providing an estimate of an effective transmit correlation matrix of the transmit antennas;
• deriving a linear precode for the channel based in part on the estimates of the effective channel mean matrix and the effective transmit correlation matrix;
• encoding information to be transmitted according to the linear precode;
• wherein a matrix block code is provided for said channel, the matrix block code comprising a code selected from the group consisting of:
• orthogonal space-time block codes, non-orthogonal space-time block codes, and spatial multiplexing codes;
• wherein a codeword C is a codeword of said matrix block code and a codeword Ĉ is another codeword of said matrix block code, wherein said matrix block code has a codeword product separation function A(C, Ĉ) of said codewords C and Ĉ.