Belief propagation based MIMO detection operating on quantized channel output

In multiple-antenna communications, as bandwidth and modulation order increase, system components must work with demanding tolerances. In particular, high resolution and high sampling rate analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are often prohibitively challenging to design. Therefore ADCs for such applications should be low-resolution. This paper provides new insights into the problem of optimal signal detection based on quantized received signals for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. It capitalizes on previous works which extensively analyzed the unquantized linear vector channel using graphical inference methods. In particular, a “loopy” belief propagation-like (BP) MIMO detection algorithm, operating on quantized data with low complexity, is proposed. In addition, we study the impact of finite receiver resolution in fading channels in the large-system limit by means of a state evolution analysis of the BP algorithm, which refers to the limit where the number of transmit and receive antennas go to infinity with a fixed ratio. Simulations show that the theoretical findings might give accurate results even with moderate number of antennas.