Low complexity list detection algorithm for Spatial Modulation with multiple active transmit antennas

Multiple Active Spatial Modulation (MA-SM) is a promising transmission technology for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system. In this paper, a linear list detection algorithm for MA-SM is proposed to trade off the performance and the complexity. The detection of the sub-set of the transmit antennas is firstly performed, resulting in a list of the best candidates. Then the constellation symbol detection is performed for each selected sub-set in the list. The simulation results together with the complexity analysis show that the proposed list detection algorithm can improve the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance compared with the existing detection algorithm without list but incurs not too much complexity increase.