A system for detecting a communication (128, 130) received at a plurality of receiving antennas (112, 114, 116, 118) from a plurality of transmitting antennas (102, 104, 106, 108), each of the transmitting antennas (102, 104, 106, 108) transmitting one of a plurality of symbols (132, 134, 136, 138) in a constellation, the system comprising: a receiver comprising a queue and a sphere detector module, the queue configured to store a series of communications and assert a terminate signal when the queue becauses full to the sphere detector module for requesting a result (144, 146) from the sphere detector module, and the sphere detector module responsive to the terminate signal, the sphere detector module performing a depth-first search until the depth-first search terminates in response to the terminate signal requesting the result, the sphere detector module performing the depth-first search that evaluates a respective distance of at least one node of a leaf level (e.g. 328, 330, 332, 334) of a search tree in response to the communication (128, 130) received at the receiving antennas (112, 114, 116, 118), the sphere detector module performing the depth-first search that selects the result (144, 146) from the at least one node (328, 330, 332, 334) in response to the respective distance, wherein in response to the terminate signal, the sphere detector module terminates the depth-first search before completing the search of the search tree, and wherein the result (144, 146) includes a selected node (148, 150) of the at least one node of the leaf level (328, 330, 332, 334), and, for each of the transmitting antennas (102, 104, 106, 108), the selected node (148, 150) identifies a corresponding one of the symbols in the constellation, with the symbol detected (152, 154, 156, 158) as transmitted by the transmitting antenna (102, 104, 106, 108). a receiver comprising a queue and a sphere detector module, the queue configured to store a series of communications and assert a terminate signal when the queue becauses full to the sphere detector module for requesting a result (144, 146) from the sphere detector module, and the sphere detector module responsive to the terminate signal, the sphere detector module performing a depth-first search until the depth-first search terminates in response to the terminate signal requesting the result, the sphere detector module performing the depth-first search that evaluates a respective distance of at least one node of a leaf level (e.g. 328, 330, 332, 334) of a search tree in response to the communication (128, 130) received at the receiving antennas (112, 114, 116, 118), the sphere detector module performing the depth-first search that selects the result (144, 146) from the at least one node (328, 330, 332, 334) in response to the respective distance, wherein in response to the terminate signal, the sphere detector module terminates the depth-first search before completing the search of the search tree, and wherein the result (144, 146) includes a selected node (148, 150) of the at least one node of the leaf level (328, 330, 332, 334), and, for each of the transmitting antennas (102, 104, 106, 108), the selected node (148, 150) identifies a corresponding one of the symbols in the constellation, with the symbol detected (152, 154, 156, 158) as transmitted by the transmitting antenna (102, 104, 106, 108).