• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.13-18
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• 2011

Sphere Decoding (SD) is a decoding technique able to achieve the Maximum Likelihood (ML) performance in fading environments; nevertheless, the main disadvantage of this technique is its high complexity, especially in poor channel conditions. In this paper, we present an adaptive hybrid algorithm which reduces the conventional Sphere Decoder's complexity and keeps the ML performance. The system called Adaptive OSIC-SD modifies its operation based on Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) information and achieves an optimal performance in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) and complexity. Through simulations, we probe that the proposed system maintains almost the same bit error rate performance of the conventional SD, and exhibits a lower, quasi-constant complexity.