A Physical Layer Abstraction for Maximum Likelihood Demodulation of MIMO Signals

We develop a physical layer abstraction to model the performance of MIMO with maximum likelihood demodulation (MLD) in a system simulation. MLD is inherently a non-linear process, and thus it is difficult to find a linear abstraction to its performance. The abstraction is based on bounds on performance obtained from the QR & QL decompositions of the channel. The accuracy of the abstraction is demonstrated using link simulations. In addition, the abstraction has low complexity. The model is used in a system simulation to evaluate the gains obtained with MLD.