Patent ID: 8432986

Claim:
An apparatus for receiving signals by using a number of (N) receive (Rx) antennas in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising: a series of detectors including N number of detectors, the series of detectors comprising: a first detector configured to estimate first transmit (Tx) signal vectors respectively corresponding to first symbols that can be transmitted as a first symbol, configure a first candidate group including the first symbol according to a square Euclidean distance value between each of the first Tx signal vectors and a Rx signal vector, and provide the first candidate group to a next detector in the series; a set of intermediate detectors in the series, a number of the intermediate detectors equal to (N−2), each of the intermediate detectors configured to estimate intermediate Tx signal vectors respectively corresponding to combinations of a previous candidate group provided from a previous detector in the series and each symbol that can be transmitted, configure an intermediate candidate group, each candidate including one more symbol than candidates of the previous candidate group, based on the square Euclidean distance value between each of the intermediate Tx signal vectors and the Rx signal vector, and provide the intermediate candidate group to a next detector in the series; and a final detector configured to form Tx signal vectors by combining symbols that can be transmitted as an N th symbol with a candidate group provided from an (N−2) th detector in the set of intermediate detectors, and compute the square Euclidean distance value between each of the Tx signal vectors and the Rx signal vector.