Efficient Integer Coefficient Search for Compute-and-Forward

Integer coefficient selection is an important decoding step in the implementation of compute-and-forward (C-F) relaying scheme. Choosing the optimal integer coefficients in C-F has been shown to be a shortest vector problem, which is known to be NP-hard in its general form. Exhaustive search of the integer coefficients is only feasible in complexity for small number of users while approximation algorithms, such as Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovász lattice reduction algorithm, only find a vector within an exponential factor of the shortest vector. An optimal deterministic algorithm was proposed for C-F by Sahraei and Gastpar specifically for the real valued channel case. In this paper, we adapt their idea to the complex valued channel and propose an efficient search algorithm to find the optimal integer coefficient vectors over the ring of Gaussian integers and the ring of Eisenstein integers. A second algorithm is then proposed that generalizes our search algorithm to the integer-forcing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) C-F receiver. Performance and efficiency of the proposed algorithms are evaluated through simulations and theoretical analysis.