Patent ID: 7729436

Claim:
A method for the decoding of a received signal comprising symbols distributed in at least one of space, time or frequency by a space-time or space-frequency encoding matrix, wherein the method implements the following steps: a space-time decoding, which is the inverse of a space-time encoding implemented at emission, delivering a decoded signal; an equalization of said decoded signal, delivering an equalized signal; a first estimation of the symbols forming the received signal, delivering an estimated signal, wherein said first estimation comprises the following steps: diagonalization, by multiplication of the equalized signal by a diagonalization matrix, leading to a diagonal total encoding/channel/decoding matrix taking account of at least said encoding matrix, and of a decoding matrix that is the conjugate transpose of said encoding matrix; first diversity pre-decoding, which is the inverse of a diversity pre-encoding implemented at emission of said signal, fed by the diagonalization step and delivering first pre-decoded data; estimation of the symbols forming said received signal, from said first pre-decoded data, delivering the estimated symbols; first diversity pre-encoding, identical to said diversity pre-encoding implemented at emission, applied to said estimated symbols, to give the estimated signal; and at least one iteration of an interference cancellation step, each iteration comprising the following sub-steps: subtraction, from said equalized signal, of said estimated signal multiplied by an interference matrix, delivering an optimized signal; second diversity pre-decoding of said optimized signal, which is the inverse of a diversity pre-encoding implemented at emission, delivering second pre-decoded data; estimation of the symbols forming said optimized signal, from said second pre-decoded data, delivering new estimated symbols; and second diversity pre-encoding, identical to said diversity pre-encoding implemented at emission, applied to said new estimated symbols, to give a new estimated signal, except for the last iteration.