A Study of Ordering Sphere Decoder Class for Space-Time Codes

In this paper, an overview on the ordering sphere decoder (SD) class for space-time codes (STC) will be presented. In SDs, the ordering techniques are considered as promising methods for reducing complexity by exploiting a sorted list of candidates, thus decreasing the number of tested points. First, we will present the current state of art of SD with their advantages and disadvantages. Then, the overview of simply geometrical approaches for ordering is presented to address the question to overcome the disadvantages. The computer simulation results shown that, thanks to the aid of ordering, the ordering SDs can achieve optimal bit-error-rate (BER) performance while requiring the very low complexity, which is comparable to that of linear sub-optimal decoders.