Evaluation Framework for k-Best Sphere Decoders

While Maximum-Likelihood (ML) is the optimum decoding scheme for most communication scenarios, practical implementation difficulties limit its use, especially for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems with a large number of transmit or receive antennas. Tree-searching type decoder structures such as Sphere decoder and K-best decoder present an interesting trade-off between complexity and performance. Many algorithmic developments and VLSI implementations have been reported in literature with widely varying performance to area and power metrics. In this semi-tutorial paper we present a holistic view of different Sphere decoding techniques and K-best decoding techniques, identifying the key algorithmic and implementation trade-offs. We establish a consistent benchmark framework to investigate and compare the delay cost, power cost, and power-delay-product cost incurred by each method. Finally, using the framework, we propose and analyze a novel architecture and compare that to other published approaches. Our goal is to explicitly elucidate the overall advantages and disadvantages of each proposed algorithms in one coherent framework.