Layered maximum likelihood detection for MIMO systems in frequency selective fading channels

By transmitting different substreams in different antennas simultaneously, a multiple element antenna array system provides increased capacity that grows linearly with the number of transmit antennas. Layered space-time processing that performs nulling, detection and cancellation for each substream can be used for reception, with a linear growth in receiver complexity. This paper considers this multi-input multi-output system over a slow time-varying frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel environment. With the equivalent channel tap delay line model, each delayed tap in every transmit-receive antenna pair can be considered as an imaginary antenna transmitting a delayed version of the substreams. Based on this idea, we propose a layered maximum likelihood detection (L-MLD) scheme which performs layered processing and maximum likelihood detection for each substream and its delayed elements. To further improve the performance, a group maximum likelihood detection (G-MLD) scheme is also proposed by grouping the substreams and performing layered processing in groups and maximum likelihood detection within the group. However, both schemes increase the required number of receiving antennas, which increases hardware cost and size. To reduce this requirement, we propose the use of oversampling technique to increase the dimension of the received signal. Simulation results show that the L-MLD scheme achieves frequency diversity and outperforms existing schemes such as the V-BLAST system with OFDM and multi-input multi-output decision feedback equalizers (MIMO-DFE). Moreover, the G-MLD scheme performs better than L-MLD with an increased detection complexity. In addition, it was showed that further increasing the oversampling rate beyond the minimum requirement does not improve the performance. © 2006 IEEE.