An innovative low-complexity detection algorithm for spatial modulation

Spatial modulation (SM) technology, as an efficient multi-antenna transmission scheme, has widely used in MIMO communication systems in recent years. However, the computational complexity of the maximum likelihood (ML) detection algorithm which has the optimal detection performance is very high. In this paper, we propose an innovative phase-search-based (PSB) low-complexity detection algorithm. This algorithm uses a polar coordinate system. In the detection process, in order to reduce the computational complexity, the subtraction of the angular distance replaces the multiplication of the Euclidean distance. In this paper, the principle and the computational complexity of this algorithm are given and the detection performance is simulated under Rayleigh fading channel. The Results of theoretical analysis and simulation verification demonstrate that the proposed algorithm greatly reduces the computational complexity, while ensuring the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance.