A Scalable VLSI Architecture for Soft-Input Soft-Output Single Tree-Search Sphere Decoding

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless transmission imposes huge challenges on the design of efficient hardware architectures for iterative receivers. A major challenge is soft-input soft-output (SISO) MIMO demapping, often approached by sphere decoding (SD). In this brief, we introduce-to our best knowledge-the first VLSI architecture for SISO SD applying a single tree-search approach. Compared with a soft-output-only base architecture similar to the one proposed by Studer in IEEE J-SAC 2008, the architectural modifications for soft input still allow a one-node-per-cycle execution. For a 4×4 antennas system using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with order 16, the area increases by 57%, and the operating frequency degrades by 34% only.