This paper proposes a low-complexity signal detection algorithm for spatially correlated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. The proposed algorithm sets a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) detection result to the starting point, and searches for signal candidates in multi-dimensions of the noise enhancement from which the MMSE detection suffers. The multi-dimensional search is needed because the number of dominant directions of the noise enhancement is likely to be more than one over the correlated MIMO channels. To reduce the computational complexity of the multi-dimensional search, the proposed algorithm limits the number of signal candidates to O(NT) where NT is the number of transmit antennas and O( ) is big O notation. Specifically, the signal candidates, which are unquantized, are obtained as the solution of a minimization problem under a constraint that a stream of the candidates should be equal to a constellation point. Finally, the detected signal is selected from hard decisions of both the MMSE detection result and unquantized signal candidates on the basis of the log likelihood function. For reducing the complexity of this process, the proposed algorithm decreases the number of calculations of the log likelihood functions for the quantized signal candidates. Computer simulations under a correlated MIMO channel condition demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides an excellent trade-off between BER performance and complexity, and that it is superior to conventional one-dimensional search algorithms in BER performance while requiring less complexity than the conventional algorithms.

This paper proposes a low-complexity algorithm to calculate log likelihood ratios (LLRs) of coded bits, which is necessary for channel decoding in coded MIMO mobile communications. An approximate LLR needs to find a pair of transmitted signal candidates that can maximize the log likelihood function under a constraint that a coded bit is equal to either one or zero. The proposed algorithm can find such a pair simultaneously, whereas conventional ones find them individually. Specifically, the proposed method searches for such candidates in directions of the noise enhancement using the MMSE detection as a starting point. First, an inverse matrix which the MMSE weight matrix includes is obtained and then the power method derives eigenvectors of the inverse matrix as the directions of the noise enhancement. With some eigenvectors, one-dimensional search and hard decision are performed. From the resultant signals, the transmitted signal candidates to be required are selected on the basis of the log likelihood function. Computer simulations with 44 MIMO-OFDM, 16QAM, and convolutional codes (rate =1/2, 2/3) demonstrate that the proposed algorithm requires only 1.0 dB more Eb/N0 than that of the maximum likelihood detection (MLD) in order to achieve packet error rate of 10-3, while reducing the complexity to about 0.2% of that of MLD.