Soft output m-algorithm receiver structures with generalized survivor selection criteria for mimo systems

Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for a modified soft output M-algorithm. In one embodiment, the soft output M-algorithm is employed by a receiver in a wireless communication system to receive information-bearing signals wirelessly transmitted from the transmitter wirelessly transmitted, the receiver comprising: an inner decoder structure having a multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO) joint demapper to perform joint inner demapping over each tone, the joint demapper being operable to apply a soft-output M-type algorithm to identify survivor candidates at each depth in a detection tree being searched for each tone, including surviving full-length candidates, based on at least one metric and at least one other criterion, where a number of best alternatives from every level of the tree are expanded along with one or more alternatives selected meeting the at least one other criterion and where soft-output related information is collected and stored for each bit, and an outer decoder operable with the inner decoder to perform iterative decoding.