On fast preprocessing schemes for the real‐valued spatially multiplexed MIMO detectors

SUMMARY Multiple‐input and multiple‐output detectors may rely on the complex and real signal models, yielding complex detectors for quadrature amplitude modulated signals and real detectors for pulse amplitude modulated signals, respectively. It is well‐known that the complex and real maximum likelihood detectors are equivalent. But relying on both the conventional real and pairwise real models, we show in this paper that some of the suboptimal real detectors are equivalent to their counterpart complex detectors, whereas some are not. The equivalence between the complex and pairwise real detectors also leads us to develop fast preprocessing algorithms for the real ordered successive interference cancelation and tree search detectors. Finally, we show that the preprocessing computations required by the equivalent suboptimal complex and pairwise real detectors are of the same complexity. When some practical preprocessing criteria are used, the real detectors may not detect the PAM signals in the pairwise manner. Such non‐pairwise real detectors outperform their counterpart complex detectors at the cost of higher preprocessing complexity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.