Optimal Low Complexity Detector for Signed-Quadrature Spatial Modulation MIMO System

Very recently, signed quadrature spatial modulation (sQSM) is developed as a competent technique that expands the spatial constellation diagram of QSM system by adding a bipolar dimension. Despite the enhanced spectral efficiency, the existing optimal maximum likelihood (ML) presents a serious computational challenge for large scale sQSM systems. Therefore, developing a reduced complexity detector for sQSM schemes is of significant importance to enable implementing and enjoying the inherent advantages of this promising system. Toward this end, a Tree Search (TS) optimal low complexity detector, called TSopt, for sQSM Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system is proposed and analyzed in this paper. The proposed detector expands the computationally complex ML detector for sQSM into a tree-structure representation. The idea of the suggested algorithm is to employ an efficient searching strategy that can expeditiously find the branch corresponding to the minimum error without tracing the entire nodes as in the ML case. It is reported that the proposed TSopt algorithm achieves the exact error performance as ML detector but with substantial reduction in computational complexity. Besides, complexity analysis in terms of the number of visited nodes of the TSopt algorithm is analyzed and a closed-form expression for the expected complexity at high SNR values is derived. Reported results disclose agreement between simulation and expected analytical complexity with substantial gains of around 60-80% in complexity reduction for different system parameters.