  Differential distributed space-time coding (D-DSTC) is a cooperative
transmission technique that can improve diversity in wireless relay networks in
the absence of channel information. Conventionally, it is assumed that channels
are flat-fading and relays are perfectly synchronized at the symbol level.
However, due to the delay spread in broadband systems and the distributed
nature of relay networks, these assumptions may be violated. Hence,
inter-symbol interference (ISI) may appear. This paper proposes a new
differential encoding and decoding process for D-DSTC systems with multiple
relays over slow frequency-selective fading channels with imperfect
synchronization. The proposed method overcomes the ISI caused by
frequency-selectivity and is robust against synchronization errors while not
requiring any channel information at the relays and destination. Moreover, the
maximum possible diversity with a decoding complexity similar to that of the
conventional D-DSTC is attained. Simulation results are provided to show the
performance of the proposed method in various scenarios.
