Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless transmission imposes huge
challenges on the design of efficient hardware architectures for iterative
receivers. A major challenge is soft-input soft-output (SISO) MIMO demapping,
often approached by sphere decoding (SD). In this paper, we introduce the - to
our best knowledge - first VLSI architecture for SISO SD applying a single
tree-search approach. Compared with a soft-output-only base architecture
similar to the one proposed by Studer et al. in IEEE J-SAC 2008, the
architectural modifications for soft input still allow a one-node-per-cycle
execution. For a 4x4 16-QAM system, the area increases by 57% and the operating
frequency degrades by 34% only.Comment: Accepted for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II Express
Briefs, May 2010. This draft from April 2010 will not be updated any more.
Please refer to IEEE Xplore for the final version. *) The final publication
will appear with the modified title "A Scalable VLSI Architecture for
Soft-Input Soft-Output Single Tree-Search Sphere Decoding