Firefly algorithm assisted multi-user detection for OFDM/SDMA uplink system

Abstract

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing/space division multiple access (OFDM/SDMA), as a technique proposed for future high data-rate requirements, is capable of achieving higher user capacity. The error free detection of the transmitted data of the users poses many challenging issues. Alternatives are explored for optimum maximum likelihood (ML) aided detection due to its exponential complexity with the number of users and constellation size. Conventional detection techniques using zero forcing (ZF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) are less complex with much poor performance. The possibility of nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithms to detect the user data have been of great research interest these days. With these optimisation algorithms, we can obtain almost optimum results with much reduced computational complexity. In this paper, recently developed firefly algorithm (FA) has been utilised to detect the users' transmitted data and the result has been compared with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) aided data detection.