Patent ID: 8238465

Claim:
A sphere decoding method applied to a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channel, comprising: enumerating a plurality of constellation points of an n th detection layer corresponding to a MIMO channel matrix based on an enumeration rule, and defining at least one n th sub-set of the n th detection layer, wherein the MIMO channel matrix corresponds to a first detection layer to a T th detection layer, the n th detection layer and K n respectively correspond to at least one of a second detection layer to a (T−1) th detection layer and K 2 to K (T−1) , K n being a positive integer; obtaining K constellation points from each of the at least one n th sub-set as preferred points and selecting K n preferred points of the n th detection layer from all the K preferred points of the at least one n th sub-set, wherein K is a positive integer, and K n is less than or equal to a positive integer of a total number of all the K preferred points of the at least one n th sub-set; transferring K 1 preferred points to the second detection layer from the first detection layer, transferring K 2 preferred points to a third detection layer from the second detection layer, . . . , transferring K (T−1) preferred points to the T th detection layer from the (T−1) th detection layer; and determining an optimal solution according to K T preferred points of the T th detection layer, wherein at least one of K and K 1 to K T is determined by the characteristic of the MIMO channel matrix, the method implemented by a processor on a chip to decode a signal provided over the MIMO channel.