Patent ID: 8184749

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; determining a candidate range of the constellation points of the at least one n th sub-set according to a predetermined number K of the preferred points of the at least one n th sub-set, wherein K is a positive integer; obtaining K constellation points from the at least one n th sub-set as preferred points according to partial Euclidean distances (PEDs) of the constellation points, wherein the at least one n th sub-set includes at least K constellation points; 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 n is a positive integer less than or equal to a total number of the K preferred points of the at least one n th sub-set; and determining an optimal solution according to the K n preferred points, the method implemented by a processor on a chip to decode a signal provided over the MIMO channel.