A performance study of MIMO detectors

Several approaches have recently been proposed for the efficient optimum or approximate solution of the detection problem in multiple-input multiple-output transmission systems. These are, however, difficult to compare. In the present work we briefly summarize the most popular and promising of these approaches and offer a way to visualize the tradeoff between complexity of the detection and the achievable power efficiency using "complexity-power diagrams". We conclude that the so-called sphere decoder algorithm is very attractive in terms of average complexity, while for low and constant processing delay lattice reduction with subsequent simple linear or nonlinear detection is more favorable.