Lattice coding and decoding achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of MIMO channels

This paper considers communication over coherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) flat-fading channels where the channel is only known at the receiver. For this setting, we introduce the class of LAttice Space-Time (LAST) codes. We show that these codes achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff defined by Zheng and Tse under generalized minimum Euclidean distance lattice decoding. Our scheme is based on a generalization of Erez and Zamir mod-Lambda scheme to the MIMO case. In our construction the scalar "scaling" of Erez-Zamir and Costa Gaussian "dirty-paper" schemes is replaced by the minimum mean-square error generalized decision-feedback equalizer (MMSE-GDFE). This result settles the open problem posed by Zheng and Tse on the construction of explicit coding and decoding schemes that achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Moreover, our results shed more light on the structure of optimal coding/decoding techniques in delay-limited MIMO channels, and hence, open the door for novel approaches for space-time code constructions. In particular, 1) we show that MMSE-GDFE plays a fundamental role in approaching the limits of delay-limited MIMO channels in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, unlike the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel case and 2) our random coding arguments represent a major departure from traditional space-time code designs based on the rank and/or mutual information design criteria.