Research on Sphere Decoding Algorithms for Single-user MIMO in LTE-A Uplink

Detection algorithm at the receiver is important for the implementation of MIMO systems, of which the ones aiming at practical systems need to take the trade-off between performance and complexity into account, and the sphere decoding (SD) algorithms are a category of algorithms obtained from reducing the complexity of maximum likelihood detection. For the situation of single-user MIMO in the uplink of LTE-A, this paper introduces an implementation scheme for SD based on single-tree search and iterative interference cancellation, through the analysis of the SD algorithms in existing literature and related methods, with the engineering realizability taken into account. Through the performance evaluation in an uplink simulation platform compliant with 3GPP standards, the performance gain of SD compare to MMSE and its relative trends are observed, thereby providing guidelines for the engineering implementation of SD algorithms.