QR-Decomposition-Aided Tabu Search Detection for Large MIMO Systems

In the conventional tabu search (TS) detection algorithm for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the cost metrics of all neighboring vectors are computed to determine the best neighbor. This can require an excessively high computational complexity, especially in large MIMO systems because the number of neighboring vectors and the dimension per vector are large. In this study, we propose an improved TS algorithm based on the QR decomposition of the channel matrix (QR-TS), which allows for finding the best neighbor with a significantly lower complexity compared with the conventional TS algorithm. Specifically, QR-TS does not compute all metrics by early rejecting unpromising neighbors, which reduces the computational load of TS without causing any performance loss. To further optimize the QR-TS algorithm, we investigate novel ordering schemes, namely the transmit-ordering (Tx-ordering) and receive-ordering (Rx-ordering), which can considerably reduce the complexity of QR-TS. Simulation results show that QR-TS reduces the complexity approximately by a factor of two compared with the conventional TS. Furthermore, when both Tx-ordering and Rx-ordering are applied, QR-TS requires approximately 60% - 90% less complexity compared with the conventional TS scheme. The proposed algorithms are suitable for both low-order and high-order modulation, and can achieve a significant complexity reduction compared to the Schnorr-Euchner and K-best sphere decoders in large MIMO systems.