Reduced Complexity Decoding of n x n Algebraic Space-Time Codes

Algebraic space–time coding allows for reliable data exchange across fading multiple-input multiple-output channels. A powerful technique for decoding space–time codes is Maximum-Likelihood (ML) decoding, but well-performing and widely-used codes such as the Golden code often suffer from high ML-decoding complexity. In this article, a recursive algorithm for decoding general algebraic space–time codes of arbitrary dimension is proposed, which reduces the worst-case decoding complexity from O(|S| 2 ) to O(|S|).