On the complexity and performance of strategies for symbol detection in multi-antenna wireless LAN

This paper discusses the symbol detection complexity of several orthogonal frequency division multiplexing wireless communication schemes using multiple-input multiple-output channels. We investigate spatial diversity (SD) and spatial multiplexing (SM) architectures. For the SD case we discuss an efficient example of space-time block coding, namely the Alamouti scheme. For the SM case we examine linear filtering, using both the zero-forcing and minimum mean squared error design criteria, and also the nonlinear maximum likelihood detection method. A comparison of the packet error rate performance of the various systems is then provided, followed by a thorough analysis of implementational complexity.