A Novel ML Decoding Scheme for MIMO Signals

In this paper, we propose a novel maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding scheme based on the combination of depth- and breadth-first search methods on a partitioned tree for multiple input multiple output systems. The proposed scheme first partitions the searching tree into several stages, each of which is then searched by a depth- or breadth-first search method, possibly exploiting the advantages of both the depth- and breadth-first search methods in an organized way. Numerical results indicate that, when the depth- and breadth-first search algorithms are adopted appropriately, the proposed scheme exhibits substantially lower computational complexity than conventional ML decoders while maintaining the ML bit error performance.