Maximum likelihood decoding in a space division multiplexing system

An analysis is made of maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) in a wireless space division multiplexing (SDM) link, where information is transmitted and received simultaneously over several transmit and receive antennas to achieve large data rates and high spectral efficiencies. It is proven that maximum likelihood decoding obtains a diversity order equal to the number of receive antennas, independent of the number of the transmit antennas, while conventional processing techniques such as the minimum mean square error (MMSE) technique obtain a diversity order equal to the number of receive antennas minus the number of transmit antennas plus one. Hence, compared to conventional techniques, maximum likelihood decoding has a significant signal-to-noise ratio advantage which grows with the number of transmit antennas. Maximum likelihood decoding even works when the number of transmit antennas is larger than the number of receive antennas, which is not possible for conventional techniques.