Multiple-symbol detection for photon-counting MIMO free-space optical communications

We employ a photon-counting signal model of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) free-space optical (FSO) system and investigate detection assuming the absence of channel state information (CSI) at the receiver, in moderate to strong atmospheric turbulence. The considered modulation format is on-off keying with repetition coding across the transmitters. To partially recover the performance loss associated with symbol-by-symbol detection without CSI, we consider the application of multiple-symbol detection (MSD) to equal gain combined (EGC) statistics. We develop a fast search algorithm for EGC-MSD and propose a suboptimal closed-form decision metric suitable for reduced-complexity implementation; performance results confirm that the true and suboptimal metrics perform comparably well. Significantly, the complexity of our receiver, on a per bit-decision basis, is only logarithmically dependent on the observation window length N, and is effectively independent of the size of the MIMO array. We also present the framework for a decision-feedback receiver and obtain performance expressions for the ideal case of error-free feedback; these expressions serve as an upper bound to the performance of EGC-MSD. Analytical and simulation results indicate that the system effectively realizes the diversity gains expected from a MIMO configuration and that the performance of the EGC-MSD receiver approaches the EGC with CSI lower bound with increasing N.