Patent ID: 7254192

Claim:
A method of detection in a multiple-input, multiple-output wireless communication system, comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a signal representing a set of P symbols, one symbol transmitted from each of P antennas where P is a positive integer greater than 2; (b) jointly estimating a subset of P 1 symbols of said set of P symbols where P 1 is a positive integer; (c) after step (b), jointly estimating a subset of P 2 symbols of said set of P symbols where P 2 is a positive integer and wherein said subset of P 1 symbols and said subset of P 2 symbols are members of a partition of said set of P symbols and P 1 +P 2 is greater than 2 and wherein P 1 =P 2 =P/2 when there are 2 antennas.