Performance - Complexity Comparison of Receivers for a LTE MIMO–OFDM System

Abstract

Implementation of receivers for spatial multiplexing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) systems is considered. The linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) and the K-best list sphere detector (LSD) are compared to the iterative successive interference cancellation (SIC) detector and the iterative K-best LSD. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated in 3G long-term evolution (LTE) system. The SIC algorithm is found to perform worse than the K-best LSD when the MIMO channels are highly correlated, while the performance difference diminishes when the correlation decreases. The receivers are designed for 2X2 and 4X4 antenna systems and three different modulation schemes. Complexity results for FPGA and ASIC implementations are found. A modification to the K-best LSD which increases its detection rate is introduced. The ASIC receivers are designed to meet the decoding throughput requirements in LTE and the K-best LSD is found to be the most complex receiver although it gives the best reliable data transmission throughput. The SIC receiver has the best performance–complexity tradeoff in the 2X2 system but in the 4X4 case, the K-best LSD is the most efficient. A receiver architecture which could be reconfigured to using a simple or a more complex detector as the channel conditions change would achieve the best performance while consuming the least amount of power in the receiver