Maximum-Likelihood Sequence Detection in Time- and Frequency-Selective MIMO Channels With Unknown Order

In the equalization of frequency-selective multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channels, it is usually assumed that the length of the channel impulse response (CIR), which is also referred to as the channel order, is known. However, this is not true in most practical situations, and it is a common approach to overestimate the channel order to avoid the serious performance degradation that occurs when the CIR length is underestimated. Unfortunately, the computational complexity of maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) in frequency-selective channels exponentially grows with the channel order; hence, overestimation can actually be undesirable because it leads to more expensive and inefficient receivers. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm for MLSD that incorporates the full estimation of the MIMO CIR parameters, including its order. The proposed technique is based on the per-survivor processing (PSP) methodology; it admits both blind and semiblind implementations, depending on the availability of pilot data, and is designed to work with time-selective channels. In addition to the analytical derivation of the algorithm, we provide computer simulation results that illustrate the effectiveness of the resulting receiver.