A two-stage detection algorithm for the V-BLAST system

A MIMO system (multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver) is capable of very high theoretical capacities. Foschini et al. proposed V-BLAST (Vertical-Bell Lab Layered Space-Time) code with a detection algorithm based on linear combination nulling and successive symbol cancellation. However this conventional detection algorithm requires time to execute both these computational bottlenecks. The time delay will be enhanced if the number of transmit antennas increases. In order to avoid this obstacle, parallel symbol cancellation (PSC) was proposed. But the performance is degraded. In this paper, we propose a two-stage detection algorithm derived from the combination of SSC and PSC to improve the BER performance. The proposed scheme is applied to zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) criteria. We also perform simulation to verify the analysis.