Low Complexity ZF and MMSE Detectors for the Uplink MU-MIMO Systems With a Time-Varying Number of Active Users

Abstract

The classical multiuser detection algorithms such as zero forcing (ZF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) receivers are designed with the assumption that the number of active users is constant and known. When the number of the active users changes, the receiver may exhibit a serious performance loss if it does not react quickly to such variations. In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the complexity of the reevaluation of the popular ZF and MMSE detectors for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems with a time-varying number of users in the channel. For each technique, we propose a detection approach with low complexity and without performance loss. The proposed algorithms avoid the direct computation of matrix inverses required by the ZF and MMSE detectors. Moreover, the performance losses, due to the use of the ZF and MMSE detectors intended for the scenario with a fixed number of active users, are evaluated with Monte Carlo simulation results.