The emerging massive/large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (LS-MIMO) systems that rely on very large antenna arrays have become a hot topic of wireless communications. Compared to multi-antenna aided systems being built at the time of this writing, such as the long-term evolution (LTE) based fourth generation (4G) mobile communication system which allows for up to eight antenna elements at the base station (BS), the LS-MIMO system entails an unprecedented number of antennas, say 100 or more, at the BS. The huge leap in the number of BS antennas opens the door to a new research field in communication theory, propagation and electronics, where random matrix theory begins to play a dominant role. Interestingly, LS-MIMOs also constitute a perfect example of one of the key philosophical principles of the Hegelian Dialectics, namely, that “quantitative change leads to qualitative change.” In this treatise, we provide a recital on the historic heritages and novel challenges facing LS-MIMOs from a detection perspective. First, we highlight the fundamentals of MIMO detection, including the nature of co-channel interference (CCI), the generality of the MIMO detection problem, the received signal models of both linear memoryless MIMO channels and dispersive MIMO channels exhibiting memory, as well as the complex-valued versus real-valued MIMO system models. Then, an extensive review of the representative MIMO detection methods conceived during the past 50 years (1965–2015) is presented, and relevant insights as well as lessons are inferred for the sake of designing complexity-scalable MIMO detection algorithms that are potentially applicable to LS-MIMO systems. Furthermore, we divide the LS-MIMO systems into two types, and elaborate on the distinct detection strategies suitable for each of them. The type-I LS-MIMO corresponds to the case where the number of active users is much smaller than the number of BS antennas, which is currently the mainstream definition of LS-MIMO. The type-II LS-MIMO corresponds to the case where the number of active users is comparable to the number of BS antennas. Finally, we discuss the applicability of existing MIMO detection algorithms in LS-MIMO systems, and review some of the recent advances in LS-MIMO detection.

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Fifty Years of MIMO Detection: The Road to Large-Scale MIMOs

In massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, it may not be power efficient to have a pair of high-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for each antenna element. In this paper, a near maximum likelihood (nML) detector for uplink multiuser massive MIMO systems is proposed where each antenna is connected to a pair of one-bit ADCs, i.e., one for each real and imaginary component of the baseband signal. The exhaustive search over all the possible transmitted vectors required in the original maximum likelihood (ML) detection problem is relaxed to formulate an ML estimation problem. Then, the ML estimation problem is converted into a convex optimization problem which can be efficiently solved. Using the solution, the base station can perform simple symbol-by-symbol detection for the transmitted signals from multiple users. To further improve detection performance, we also develop a two-stage nML detector that exploits the structures of both the original ML and the proposed (one-stage) nML detectors. Numerical results show that the proposed nML detectors are efficient enough to simultaneously support multiple uplink users adopting higher-order constellations, e.g., 16 quadrature amplitude modulation. Since our detectors exploit the channel state information as part of the detection, an ML channel estimation technique with one-bit ADCs that shares the same structure with our proposed nML detector is also developed. The proposed detectors and channel estimator provide a complete low power solution for the uplink of a massive MIMO system.

Near Maximum-Likelihood Detector and Channel Estimator for Uplink Multiuser Massive MIMO Systems With One-Bit ADCs

Large-scale (or massive) multiple-input multiple-out put (MIMO) is expected to be one of the key technologies in next-generation multi-user cellular systems based on the upcoming 3GPP LTE Release 12 standard, for example. In this work, we propose-to the best of our knowledge-the first VLSI design enabling high-throughput data detection in single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA)-based large-scale MIMO systems. We propose a new approximate matrix inversion algorithm relying on a Neumann series expansion, which substantially reduces the complexity of linear data detection. We analyze the associated error, and we compare its performance and complexity to those of an exact linear detector. We present corresponding VLSI architectures, which perform exact and approximate soft-output detection for large-scale MIMO systems with various antenna/user configurations. Reference implementation results for a Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX980T FPGA show that our designs are able to achieve more than 600 Mb/s for a 128 antenna, 8 user 3GPP LTE-based large-scale MIMO system. We finally provide a performance/complexity trade-off comparison using the presented FPGA designs, which reveals that the detector circuit of choice is determined by the ratio between BS antennas and users, as well as the desired error-rate performance.

Large-Scale MIMO Detection for 3GPP LTE: Algorithms and FPGA Implementations

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is the key to meet the demands for data rate and link reliability of modern wireless communication systems, such as IEEE 802.11n or 3GPP-LTE. The full potential of MIMO systems can, however, only be achieved by means iterative MIMO decoding relying on soft-input soft-output (SISO) data detection. In this paper, we describe the first ASIC implementation of a SISO detector for iterative MIMO decoding. To this end, we propose a low-complexity minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) based parallel interference cancellation algorithm, develop a suitable VLSI architecture, and present a corresponding four-stream 1.5 mm2 detector chip in 90 nm CMOS technology. The fabricated ASIC includes all necessary preprocessing circuitry and exceeds the 600 Mb/s peak data-rate of IEEE 802.11n. A comparison with state-of-the-art MIMO-detector implementations demonstrates the performance benefits of our ASIC prototype in practical system-scenarios.

ASIC Implementation of Soft-Input Soft-Output MIMO Detection Using MMSE Parallel Interference Cancellation

One of the challenges in the design of large-scale multiuser MIMO-OFDM systems is developing low-complexity detection algorithms. To achieve this goal, we leverage message passing algorithms over the factor graph that represents the multiuser MIMO-OFDM systems and approximate the original discrete messages with continuous Gaussian messages through the use of the minimum Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence criterion. Several signal processing techniques are then proposed to achieve near-optimal performance at low complexity. First, the principle of expectation propagation is employed to compute the approximate Gaussian messages, where the symbol belief is approximated by a Gaussian distribution and then the approximate message is calculated from the Gaussian approximate belief. In addition, the approximate symbol belief can be computed by the a posteriori probabilities fed back from channel decoders, which reduces the complexity dramatically. Second, the first-order approximation of the message is utilized to further simplify the message updating, leading to an algorithm that is equivalent to the AMP algorithm proposed by Donoho Finally, the message updating is further simplified using the central-limit theorem. Compared with the single tree search sphere decoder (STS-SD) and the iterative (turbo) minimum mean-square error based soft interference cancellation (MMSE-SIC) in the literature through extensive simulations, the proposed message passing algorithms can achieve a near-optimal performance while the complexity is decreased by tens of times for a 64 × 64 MIMO system. In addition, it is shown that the proposed message passing algorithms exhibit desirable tradeoffs between performance and complexity for a low-dimensional MIMO system.

Low-Complexity Iterative Detection for Large-Scale Multiuser MIMO-OFDM Systems Using Approximate Message Passing

Lattice-reduction (LR)-aided successive interference cancellation (SIC) is able to achieve close-to optimum error-rate performance for data detection in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. In this work, we propose a hardware-efficient VLSI architecture of the Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovasz (LLL) LR algorithm for SIC-based data detection. For this purpose, we introduce various algorithmic modifications that enable an efficient hardware implementation. Comparisons with existing FPGA implementations show that our design outperforms state-of-the-art LR implementations in terms of hardware-efficiency and throughput. We finally provide reference ASIC implementation results for 130nm CMOS technology.

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VLSI implementation of a low-complexity LLL lattice reduction algorithm for MIMO detection

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology is the key to meet the demands for data rate, quality-of-service, and bandwidth-efficiency of modern wireless communication systems. MIMO technology is therefore adopted in many recent communication standards, such as IEEE 802.11n. Here, the MIMO detector has a strong impact on the overall system performance. In fact, the full potential of MIMO communication systems can only be achieved by means of iterative MIMO decoding using soft-input soft-output (SISO) data detection. In this paper, we present-to the best of our knowledge-the first VLSI implementation of a SISO detector for iterative MIMO decoding. The presented ASIC supports SISO detection for four spatial streams and enables more than 6 dB signal-to-noise-ratio improvement over state-of-the-art MIMO detectors. The 1.5 mm2 ASIC is fabricated in 90nm CMOS and achieves 757 Mb/s, which exceeds the 600 Mb/s IEEE 802.11n peak data-rate.

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D. Seethaler

Papers

ASIC Implementation of Soft-Input Soft-Output MIMO Detection Using MMSE Parallel Interference Cancellation

VLSI implementation of a low-complexity LLL lattice reduction algorithm for MIMO detection

A 757Mb/s 1.5 mm 2 90nm CMOS soft-input soft-output MIMO detector for IEEE 802.11n