A parallel hybrid merge-select sorting scheme for K-best LSD MIMO decoder on a dynamically reconfigurable processor

In this paper, we propose a parallel hybrid merge-select sorting approach for the implementation of K-best list sphere detection (LSD) multi-input multi-output (MIMO) decoder based on a recently developed novel Reconfigurable Instruction Cell Array (RICA). Several popular sorting algorithms adopted in MIMO decoding are analyzed and mapped onto our proposed platform. We discuss the targeted K-best LSD algorithm as well as the sorting scheme variations which have been tailored for our RICA architecture. Simulation results prove that our proposed hybrid sorting approach can significantly reduce the number of comparison and swap operations when selecting the K-best candidates. Our results show that a 50% speedup can be achieved compared to traditional single bubble sorting based K-best LSD MIMO decoder.