On probabilistic data association for achieving near-exponential diversity over fading channels

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) wireless communication requires the transmission of short blocks of data with high reliability over fading channels. We discuss the use of the probabilistic data association (PDA) detector in conjunction with precoding to design high-performance systems for these links. First, the performance of the traditional PDA algorithm with precoding over ideal Rayleigh fading links is analyzed, which provides insight into its performance, and evidence of an error floor at high SNRs. Then, a novel ordering mechanism is proposed that takes advantage of the precoder characteristics. It is shown by simulation that the proposed modified algorithm can achieve near-ML performance for block sizes as small as 32 symbols.