Abstract:-This paper describes the design and VLSI architecture for a 4x4 breadth first K-Best MIMO decoder using a 64 QAM scheme. A novel sort free approach to path extension, as well as quantized metrics result in a high throughput VLSI architecture with lower power and area consumption compared to state of the art published systems. Functionality is confirmed via an FPGA implementation on a Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA. Comparison of simulation and measurements are given and FPGA utilization figures are provided. Finally, VLSI architectural tradeoffs are explored for a synthesized ASIC implementation in a 65nm CMOS technology.

This paper presents a novel algorithm and architecture for K-Best decoding that combines the benefits of radius shrinking commonly associated with sphere decoding and the architectural benefits associated with K-Best decoding approaches. The proposed algorithm requires much smaller and possesses the advantages of branch pruning and adaptively updated pruning threshold while still achieving near-optimum performance. The algorithm examines a much smaller subset of points as compared to the K-Best decoder. The VLSI architecture of the decoder is based on a pipelined sorter-free scheme. The proposed K-Best decoder is designed to support a 4 4 64-QAM system and is synthesized with 65-nm technology at 158-MHz clock frequency and 1-V supply. The synthesized decoder can support a throughput of 285.8 Mb/s at 25-dB signal-to-noise ratio with an area of 210 kGE at 12.8-mW power consumption.Index Terms-K-Best, multiple input-multiple output (MIMO), sphere decoding, VLSI.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract