FPGA Implementation of a Real Time Maximum Likelihood Space-Time Decoder on a MIMO Software Radio Test Platform

This paper describes the concept, architecture, development and demonstration of a real time, maximum likelihood Alamouti decoder for a wireless 4-transmit 4-receiver multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) Smart Antenna Software Radio Test System (SASRATS) platform. It is implemented on a Xilinx Virtex 2 Pro Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).Hardware, firmware, use of the Xilinx Core Generator Intellectual Property modules and experimental verification of the decoder are discussed.