A novel approach for K-best MIMO detection and its VLSI implementation

— Since the complexity of MIMO detection algorithms is exponential, the K–best algorithm is often chosen for efficient VLSI implementation. This detection problem is often viewed as a tree search problem where the Breadth First Search (BFS) method is adopted and only the K-best branches are kept at each level of the tree. An earlier VLSI implementation of the K-best BFS has been reported, however it has an inherent speed bottleneck due to the calculation of many path metrics and then sorting among them to select the K-best. In this paper an alternative implementation of the BFS is presented, which is suitable for VLSI implementation. To test the performance of this approach it has been applied to a 4X4 MIMO detector with a 64 QAM constellation. The results show less than 1dB degradation from the sphere decoding algorithm. The implementation of a single spiral cell, the basic block behind the system, occupies a 764µm2 of area and consumes a 52.58µw of power a 0.13µm CMOS technolo...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ISCAS
• Authors: Sudip Mondal, Khaled N. Salama, Wersame H. Ali
• Keywords: Earlier Vlsi Implementation, Efficient Vlsi Implementation, Hardware, ISCAS 2008, VLSI Implementation