A Low Complexity Viterbi-Like Detection Algorithm Based on Sorted QR decomposition in V-BLAST System

Vertical Bell labs layered space-time (V-BLAST) is designed to exploit the capacity advantage of multiple antenna system in rich-scattering environments. In this paper, we propose a low complexity detection algorithm with respect to the maximum-likelihood (ML) criterion. This algorithm deploys sorted QR decomposition to construct a ML trellis. A Viterbi-like algorithm is used to find a near optimal solution in the trellis. The complexity of this algorithm is lower than that of full ML. When small size constellation is used, the proposed algorithm is less complex than MMSE-OSIC. The performance of the proposed algorithm is close to that of full ML.