  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.
