Method and System for Determining a Signal Vector

The method according to 1, wherein the number of determination steps carried out is the number of components of the signal vector.

(canceled)

(canceled)

(canceled)

A system for determining a signal vector sent by a transmitter and comprising a plurality of components from a received signal vector comprising

• a decomposition circuit adapted to perform a QR decomposition of a channel matrix characterizing the communication channel via which the signal vector was received and being expanded by variance information about the noise on the communication channel
• a determination circuit adapted to carry out a plurality of determination steps using the QR decomposition of the expanded channel matrix, wherein in each step a set of possible sub-vectors of the signal vector is determined such that in each step, the number of possible sub-vectors in the set is lower than a predefined maximum number, wherein a possible sub-vector is a sub-vector of a signal vector that could have been sent by the transmitter and wherein in each step but the first step. each sub-vector of the set of sub-vectors is a sub-vector of the set of sub-vectors determined in the previous step expanded by one possible symbol for a component of the signal vector for which the sub-vectors in the previous step do not comprise a possible symbol.
• a selecting circuit adapted to select one vector of the set of possible sub-vectors determined in the last step of the plurality of determination steps as the signal vector.

Computer program element making a computer perform a a-method for determining a signal vector sent by a transmitter and comprising a plurality of components from a received signal vector comprising

• performing a QR decomposition of a channel matrix characterizing the communication channel via which the signal vector was received and being expanded by variance information about the noise on the communication channel
• carrying out a plurality of determination steps using the QR decomposition of the expanded channel matrix, wherein in each step a set of possible sub-vectors of the signal vector is determined and wherein in each step, the number of possible sub-vectors in the set is lower than a predefined maximum number, wherein a possible sub-vector is a sub-vector of a signal vector that could have been sent by the transmitter and wherein in each step but the first step. each sub-vector of the set of sub-vectors is a sub-vector of the set of sub-vectors determined in the previous step expanded by one possible symbol for a component of the signal vector for which the sub-vectors in the previous step do not comprise a possible symbol,
• selecting one vector of the set of possible sub-vectors determined in the last step of the plurality of determination steps as the signal vector.