This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts

for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

Suitable MIMO-OFDM Decoders

to Compensate IQ Imbalance
Yasuhiko Tanabe∗ , Yoshimasa Egashira∗ , Tsuguhide Aoki∗ , Kazumi Sato∗
∗ Corporate Research & Development Center, Toshiba Corporation
Kawasaki, Japan

Abstract— Imperfections in analog circuits are a serious obsta-

cle to the realization of high data rate transmission for MIMO-
OFDM systems. IQ imbalance is one such imperfection. We
propose a compensation scheme using a cascaded connection of
MMSE and MLD, which applies MIMO decoding and compen-
sation of IQ imbalance simultaneously. Computer simulations
show that the proposed scheme can achieve almost the same
performance as the conventional compensation scheme even
though the computational complexity is reduced to about 1/3
of that of the conventional compensation scheme.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Recently, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems
[1], [2] have become a focus of attention and MIMO-OFDM
(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) systems [3]
have been the subject of a considerable number of studies
since they are suitable for high data rate transmission.
On the other hand, when high-order modulation is applied to
achieve a high data rate transmission, imperfections in analog
circuits are not negligible and they restrict communication
quality. IQ imbalance is one such analog imperfection caused
by an amplitude mismatch between the I (In-phase) branch
and Q (Quadrature-phase) branch, and/or by a phase mismatch
between I and Q branches.
If we try to calibrate those imperfections, the cost of
production increases since the production process is longer and
more complex. Also, if a self-calibration structure is imple-
mented, the cost and size of the analog circuit increases since
an accurate feedback loop is required. For these reasons, a
correction scheme using digital signal processsing is developed
in this paper.
It has been demonstrated that IQ imbalance in OFDM
systems causes the signals on pairs of subcarriers, which are
symmetrically located about DC, to mutually interfere [4], [5].
Thus, it is possible to compensate for the distortion caused by
IQ imbalance by jointly detecting the signals transmitted on
the two subcarriers [4], [5].
In this paper, we propose applying a cascaded connection
of MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) [6], [7] and MLD
(Maximum Likelihood Detection) [8] as MIMO decoding
with compensation of IQ imbalance, where signals transmitted
on different subcarriers are decomposed and MLD detects
signals on each subcarrier. The proposed scheme achieves
efficient MIMO decoding and compensation of IQ imbalance
simultaneously. This paper is organized as follows. Section
II describes the effect of IQ imbalance in MIMO-OFDM sys-
tems, and section III describes the proposed scheme. In section
ui(t) Gi(t) ui (t) cos(2πft)
Gi(t)
−90 + θ(t)
−
uq(t)
Gq(t)
Gq(t) uq(t) sin(2πft + θ(t))
Fig. 1. A model of a quadrature modulator with IQ imbalance.
IV, the performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using
computer simulations, and section V concludes this paper.
II. IQ I MBALANCE IN A MIMO-OFDM S YSTEM
We describe the distortion caused by IQ imbalance of a
quadrature modulator and a quadrature demodulator. Then, we
indicate the effect of IQ imbalance on SISO (Single Input
Single Output) OFDM systems, and extend it to MIMO-
OFDM systems.
A. Effect of IQ Imbalance on a Quadrature Modulator
Figure 1 shows the IQ imbalance of transmitter modeled
with an amplitude mismatch and a phase mismatch between
the I branch and Q branch of a quadrature modulator. In Fig.
1, ui (t) is the transmit signal on the I branch in baseband,
and uq (t) is the signal on the Q branch. When these signals
are transformed from digital signals to analog signals and up-
converted to radio frequency, it is difficult to ensure that the
gain of the I branch is the same as the gain of the Q branch
(including imperfections in the D/A converters). In addition,
it is difficult to preserve the phase difference between I and Q
branches so that it is exactly 90◦ as the frequency increases.
These phenomena are equivalent to multiplying the I branch
(t) (t)
and Q branches by the gains Gi and Gq , respectively, and
to adjusting the phase of the Q branch by θ(t) , as Fig. 1 shows.
As a result, the output of the quadrature modulator is

1525-3511/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE 864

 This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

B. Effect of IQ Imbalance on a Quadrature Demodulator

At a receiver, signals on the I and Q branches are obtained
by multiplying the received signal by sine waves with relative
Gi(r) yi(t) phases of 0◦ and 90◦ respectively, in a quadrature demodu-
Gi(r)
lator. However, it is difficult to generate an exact 90◦ phase
difference and the same amplitude between I and Q branches,
yi(t) cos(2πft) which is the same situation as for the quadrature modulator.
− yq(t) sin(2πft)
−90 + θ(r) Figure 2 shows the IQ imbalance model of of an imperfect
quadrature demodulator. If the radio frequency signal is ex-
Gq(r) yq(t) cos(θ(r)) pressed by yi (t) cos(2πf t) − yq (t) sin(2πf t), the signals on
− − Gq(r) yi(t) sin(θ(r)) the I and Q branches output by the quadrature demodulator
Gq(r)
are expressed as
   (r)
 
ri (t) Gi 0 yi (t)
Fig. 2. A model of quadrature demodulator with IQ imbalance. = (r) (r)
rq (t) −Gq sin(θ(r) ) Gq cos(θ(r) ) yq (t)
  
1 G(r) (r)
+ Gq cos θ(r)
(r)
Gq sin θ(r) yi (t)
= i
(r) (r) (r)
expressed as 2 −Gq sin θ(r) Gi + Gq cos θ(r) yq (t)
  
(t) 1 G(r) − G
(r)
cos θ (r)
G
(r)
sin θ (r)
yi (t)
Gi ui (t) cos(2πf t) − G(t) (t)
q uq (t) sin(2πf t + θ ) = + i
(r)
q
(r)
q
(r) .


(t)
 2 −Gq sin θ(r) Gi − Gq cos θ(r) −yq (t)
Gi ui (t) − G(t) (t)
q sin(θ )uq (t) cos(2πf t) (7)


− G(t)q cos(θ (t)
)u q (t) sin(2πf t). (1) Thus the received signal, r(t) = ri (t) + jrq (t), including IQ
imbalance is expressed as
By using the equivalent low-pass system, (1) is rewritten in
r(t) = αr · y(t) + βr · y ∗ (t) (8)
vector-matrix form as
   (t) (t)
  where,
mi (t) Gi −Gq sin θ(t) ui (t)
= (t)
mq (t) 0 Gq cos θ(t) uq (t) y(t) = yi (t) + jyq (t), (9)

(t)
  1
(r) (r)

1 G(t) i + Gq cos θ
(t) (t)
−Gq sin θ(t) ui (t) αr = Gi + G(r) q ·e
−jθ
, (10)
= 2
2 (t)
Gq sin θ(t) G(t) (t) uq (t)

i + Gq cos θ
(t)
1 (r) jθ (r)
   βr = Gi − G(r)q ·e . (11)
1 G(t) (t) (t) (t)
Gq sin θ(t) 2
+ i − Gq cos θ ui (t)
,
(t) (t) (t)
2 −Gq sin θ(t) Gi − Gq cos θ(t) −uq (t) Equation (8) means that the signal output from the quadrature
demodulator whose, orthogonality is destroyed by IQ imbal-
(2) ance, can be expressed by a complex number in the same
manner as the quadrature modulator. Also, it should be noted
where mi (t) and mq (t) are the transmit signals on the I branch
that received signal is not only distorted by αr , it also contains
and Q branches, respectively, and the complex transmit signal
y ∗ (t).
in the equivalent low-pass system, m(t) = mi (t) + jmq (t)
including IQ imbalance is expressed as C. Effect of IQ Imbalance in Multi-Path Channels
Here, we describe the effect of IQ imbalance on MIMO-
m(t) = αt · u(t) + βt · u∗ (t) (3) OFDM systems in multi-path channels.
Firstly, we formulate the distortion due to IQ imbalance in
where, SISO-OFDM systems.
If the number of paths is L, the time delay of each path is
u(t) = ui (t) + juq (t) (4) τl , the complex amplitude of each path is hl , and the received
1
(t) jθ (t)

signal y(t) is expressed as
αt = Gi + G(t)q ·e (5)
2
1
(t)  
L−1
jθ (t) y(t) = hl · m(t − τl ).
βt = Gi − G(t) q ·e . (6) (12)
2 l=0

Equation (3) means that the transmit signal is not only Substituting (3) into (12), the received signal is rewritten as
distorted by αt , but u∗ (t) is unnecessarily radiated. This

L−1
signal restricts the performance of MIMO-OFDM systems as y(t) = hl · (αt u(t − τl ) + βt u∗ (t − τl )) . (13)
described later. l=0

865
 This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

Including the effect of IQ imbalance in the quadrature de- subcarrier and received at −kth subcarrier, respectively. (e.g.
modulator, as given in (8), the received signal in a multi-path when the number of spatially multiplexed signals and receive
environment is expressed as antennas are Nt and Nr respectively, all of H (k) α , Hα
(−k)
,
(k) (−k)
Hβ , Hβ are Nr -by-Nt matrices.) In addition, an element

L−1
r(t) = [hl u(t − τl ) + hl u∗ (t − τl )] + n(t), (14) in the ith row and jth column of a channel matrix represents
l=0 the channel response between the jth transmit antenna and the
ith receive antenna.
where, As mentioned above, received signals on the kth subcarrier
and −kth subcarrier consist of signals transmitted on the kth
hl = hl αt αr + h∗l βt∗ βr , (15)
subcarrier and −kth subcarrier. Thus, the received signals can
hl = hl αr βt + h∗l αt∗ βr . (16) be considered as equivalent to signals without IQ imbalance
obtained when twice the number of signals are transmitted.
From (14), it can be seen that distortion due to IQ imbalance
can be represented by a linear combination of u(t) and u∗ (t). Here, consider the extended vector constructed using the
Consider that the transmit signal u(t) is an OFDM signal. In receive signal vectors for the kth and −kth subcarriers, as
OFDM systems, the received signal in (14) is passed through    (k)
 
x(k) H (k) Hβ s(k)
an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). Note that the FFT of a cyclic = α
(−k) ∗ + nk
(x(−k) )∗ (−k)
(H β )∗ (H (−k) )∗ (s )
shift of the original sequence and the FFT of the complex α
conjugate of the original sequence relate as follows: = H k sk + n k (24)
u(t − τl ) ←→ U (f ) · e−j2πf τl , (17) where, nk is the 2Nr -by-1 extended vector using thermal noise
∗ ∗
u (t − τl ) ←→ U (−f ) · e −j2πf τl
. (18) vectors for the kth subcarrier and −kth subcarrier, and H k is
a 2Nr -by-2Nt matrix.
From (14) and (17), the received signal on the kth subcarrier, Equation (24) is equivalent to a MIMO-OFDM system
x(k) , is expressed as where twice the number of transmit antennas and twice the
(k) number of receive antennas are used. Thus, MIMO decoding
x(k) = h(k)
α ·s
(k)
+ hβ · s∗(−k) + n(k) , (19)
and compensation of IQ imbalance are realized simultaneously
where, using a general MIMO decoding algorithm, if all channel
(k) (−k) ∗
matrices, H (k)
α , H β , (H β ) , (H (−k)
α )∗ , can be estimated

L−1
[4], [5].
h(k)
α = hl · e−j2πkτl
l=0 III. IQ I MBALANCE C OMPENSATION S CHEME U SING
= αt αr h(k) + βt∗ βr (h(−k) )∗ , (20) C ASCADED C ONNECTION OF MMSE AND MLD
(k)

L−1
As mentioned above, when the signals for two subcarriers
hβ = hl · e−j2πkτl
are processed simultaneously, the computational load is similar
l=0
to that in the case where twice the number of signals are
= αr βt h(k) + αt∗ βr (h(−k) )∗ , (21)
transmitted. Thus, if MLD [8] is applied as the MIMO
and h(k) and h(−k) are the channel responses for the kth and decoding method, the number of signal states increases to the
−kth subcarriers, without the effects of IQ imbalance. square of normal number of states. If MMSE MIMO decoding
Consequently, IQ imbalance causes mutual interference is applied, the performance is strongly affected by correlation
between signals transmitted on the kth and −kth subcarriers. among channels.
Because MIMO-OFDM differs from SISO-OFDM only in On the other hand, the average power of the elements of
that signals are transmitted from multiple antennas, the effect 2Nr -by-2Nt matrix H k in (24) are considerably different
(k) (−k)
of IQ imbalance is formulated similarly to (19). Thus, the from each other because the power of H β and H β depend
received signal vectors x(k) and x(−k) , for subcarriers k and strongly on the IQ imbalance. Hence, the spatial relationship
−k respectively, are expressed as between the transmit signals in MIMO-OFDM systems with
(k)
IQ imbalance is significantly different from the case without
x(k) = H (k)
α s
(k)
+ H β (s(−k) )∗ + n(k) , (22) IQ imbalance.
(−k)
x (−k)
= H (−k)
α s(−k) + H β (s(k) )∗ +n (−k)
, (23) Here, we consider the spatial correlation [9] to indicate the
relationship between the signals. Equation (24) is rewritten as,
where H (k) and H (−k) are channel matrices for signals
α α Nt 

transmitted on the kth subcarrier and received on the kth (k) (−k)
xk = hk (i) · si + hk (i + Nt ) · si + nk , (25)
subcarrier, and transmitted on the −kth subcarrier and received
(k) (−k) i=1
on the −kth subcarrier, and where H β and H β are
channel matrices for signals transmitted on the −kth subcarrier where hk (i) is the ith column vector (2Nr -by-1) of 2Nr -by-
(k)
and received on the kth subcarrier, and transmitted from kth 2Nt matrix H k in (24), si is ith spatially multiplexed signal

866
 This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

Extract signals transmitted

from kth subcarrier

Residual signals
including thermal noise

Spatial filtering

s1(k) + e1(k)
x1(k), x1(−k) for k-th MLD with s1(k), s2(k)
FFT Extend subcarrier whitening
received signal s2 (k) + e2(k)
W(k) v(k)H Ree(k)−1v(k)

x(k) s1(−k) + e1(−k)

for −k-th MLD with
x2(k), x2(−k) x∗(-k) subcarrier s1(−k), s2(−k)
FFT whitening
s2 (−k) + e2(−k)
W(-k) v(−k)H Ree(−k)−1v(−k)

Whitening
the correlation
Channel Weight matrix W(-k) W(k)
estimation calculation

Hα(k) Hβ(k) W(k) W(-k) Ree(−k)−1 Ree(k)−1

Hβ∗(-k) Hα∗(-k)
Ree(k)−1 Ree(−k)−1
for k-th and −k-th subcarriers

Fig. 3. A configuration of the proposed scheme for a 2-by-2 MIMO-OFDM system.

with a large probability, while the correlation (Ck, k (1, 2))

is much higher. Similar results are obtained for the other
pairs, i.e., Ck, k (i, j) is much higher than Ck, −k (i, j). These
results indicate that it is not efficient to jointly treat the signals
Histogram

Correlation between signals transmitted

on the mirrored subcarriers (Ck,-k(1, 1))
transmitted on a subcarrier and its mirrored subcarrier as in
[4], [5].
We can observe from these results that only a small
Correlation between signals transmitted
degradation occurs when interference due to IQ imbalance
on the same subcarriers (Ck,k(1, 2)) is suppressed using an adaptive array (i. e. spatial filtering),
since the spatial correlation Ck, −k (i, j) is very small. Thus,
we propose to apply a cascaded connection of MMSE and
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 MLD as the MIMO decoding algorithm, as shown in Figure
Spatial Correlation 3. In this scheme, the signals received on two subcarriers are
firstly combined as shown in (24), and then decomposed using
Fig. 4. Histogram of the spatial correlation (Ck, k(1, 2) ) and the correlation a multi-beam adaptive array based on the MMSE criterion.
(Ck, −k (1, 1)).
Next, MLD is applied to these decomposed signals on each
subcarrier. In this scheme, the number of states in the MLD
is equal to the number of states in normal MLD, i.e. MLD
transmitted on the kth subcarrier. In this paper, the two spatial without IQ imbalance compensation.
correlations are defined as follows: By referring to an example of processing the kth and
−kth subcarriers, the detail of the proposed scheme will
k (i)hk (j)
hH
Ck, k (i, j) = (26) be described. Signals transmitted on the kth subcarrier are
hk (i) hk (j) extracted by the following weight matrix.
hH k (i)hk (j + Nt )
Ck, −k (i, j) = . (27) (k)
hk (i) hk (j + Nt ) W (k) = R(k)−1
xx Rxd , (28)
Equation (26) shows the spatial correlation between the where,
signals transmitted on the same subcarrier, and (27) shows
the correlation between the signals on mirrored subcarriers.   H
H (k) H (k)
For example, the distributions of Ck, k (1, 2) and R(k) = α
(−k)
α
(−k)
Ck, −k (1, 1) are shown in Fig. 4. The histograms are obtained
xx
(H β )∗ (H β )∗
  H
from 10,000 independent 2-by-2 MIMO channel realisations (k) (k)
Hβ Hβ
based on model D in [10]. + + σ 2 I, (29)
The spatial correlation (Ck, −k (1, 1)) is smaller than 0.1 (H (−k)
α )∗
(H (−k) ∗
α )

867
 This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

Center Frequency TABLE I

#1
S IMULATION PARAMETERS .
Antenna Configuration 3 × 3 (ULA, 1/2 wave-length)
Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
#2 IEEE802.11 TGn
Channel Model Channel Model D [10]
Channel Fluctuation Quasi-Static
Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
FFT points 64
1st Symbol 2nd Symbol 3rd Symbol 4th Symbol No. of Subcarriers 52(Data: 48, Pilot: 4)
No. of GI samples 16
: Sequence of 1st Symbol : Negative of 1st Symbol Modulation 64 QAM
Convolutional Code
FEC
Fig. 5. Preamble structure. (Constrain: 7, Rate: 3/4)
  No. of Preamble Symbols 8
(k) H (k) for Channel Estimation
Rxd = α
(−k) , (30) Qmod1 1.0 dB 1.0 deg.
(H β )∗ IQ Mismatch on
Qmod2 -1.0 dB -1.0 deg.
Quadrature Modulator
and σ 2 is thermal noise power. Qmod3 1.1 dB 1.2 deg.
Applying this weight matrix, the output consists of signals Qdemod1 1.0 dB 1.0 deg.
IQ Mismatch on
transmitted on the kth subcarrier and signals transmitted on Qdemod2 -1.0 dB -1.0 deg.
Quadrature Demodulator
the −kth subcarrier are suppressed. However, the MMSE Qdemod3 1.1 dB 1.2 deg.
weights cannot completely suppress unnecessary signals, that Synchronization Perfect
is, there are unnecessary residual signals in the MMSE output. List Sphere Decoding
Moreover, the error signals of MMSE output including thermal MLD Candidate Proposed: 5
noise are correlated, since the weight matrix is genrally not a Points Conventional: 10
unitary matrix. Thus, the MLD in the proposed scheme has a Soft Decision Viterbi
Decoder
whitening process determined from the error covariance matrix (Path Length: 64)
[11]–[14] Packet Length 1,000 Bytes
(k) Trial 10,000 times
R(k)
ee = I − W
(k)H
Rxd . (31)

The MLD metric with whitening is expressed as


ŝ(k) = arg min v H (s)R(k)−1 v(s) ,
s ee
where,
v(s) = s − W (k)H xk .
The same process is applied to signals transmitted on the
−kth subcarrier, that is, the weight matrix is calculated to
extract the signals transmitted on the −kth subcarrier and
MLD with whitening is applied as in (32).
Consequently, the proposed scheme can realize high perfor-
mance MIMO decoding and compensation of IQ imbalance
simultaneously without increasing the computational load.
IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS
The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated by
computer simulations using the parameters shown in Table I.
In both the conventional compensation scheme [4] and
the proposed scheme, channel estimation is required for not
only desired signals, but also for signals transmitted from
the interfering subcarriers, as is understood from (24). In the
present work, we applied the extended Hadamard sequence,
as shown in Fig. 5. Incidentally, to reduce the computational
load of MLD, we apply LSD (List Sphere Decoding) [15], [16]
with Cholesky factorization of R(k)−1
ee in (32) instead of pure
MLD, and soft estimates of transmit symbols are obtained.
FEC, coding and channel interleaving follow those specified
(32) in [17].
Figure 6 shows the packet error rate performance of the
proposed scheme, conventional compensation of IQ imbal-
ance, which uses MLD to detect signals transmitted from 2
(33) subcarriers simultaneously [4], and conventional MLD without
compensation of IQ imbalance. Also, in the two conventional
schemes, LSD is applied instead of MLD.
The simulation results indicate that efficient detection can
be achieved in both the proposed scheme and the conventional
compensation scheme although an error floor is caused in the
conventional MLD without compensation of IQ imbalance.
The performance of the proposed scheme is slightly superior
to that of the conventional compensation scheme, since the
approximation error in calculating soft outputs increases as
the number of states in the MLD increases in the conventional
scheme.
Figure 7 shows the average number of real multiplication
operations in all subcarriers during 1 OFDM symbol for the
LSD. The number of operations in the proposed scheme is
almost the same as in the conventional MLD without compen-
sation, although the number of operations in the conventional
compensation scheme significantly increases at low SNR.
Specifically, the number of operations in the proposed scheme
is about 1/3 of the number in the conventional compensation
scheme at an average PER of 10%, although almost the same

868
 This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2007 proceedings.

1
[5] A. Tarighat and A. H. Sayed, “MIMO-OFDM receivers for systems
with IQ imbalances,” IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, vol. 53, no. 9, pp.
Conventional LSD 3583–3596, Sept. 2005.
w/o compensation [6] R. T. Compton, Jr., Adaptive Antennas — Concepts and Performance.
Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, 1988.
[7] R. A. Monzingo and T. W. Miller, Introduction to Adaptive Arrays. New
Avg. PER

York: Wiley, 1980.

With compensation [8] R. van Nee, A. van Zelst, and G. Awater, “Maximum likelihood decoding
0.1 in a space division multiplexing system,” in IEEE VTC’2000-Spring
Conventional Proceedings, vol. 1, Tokyo, Japan, May 2000, pp. 6–10.
LSD [9] H.-C. Lin, “Spatial correlations in adaptive arrays,” IEEE Trans. Anten-
nas Propagat., vol. AP-30, no. 2, pp. 212–223, Mar. 1982.
[10] V. Erceg and et al., “Tgn channel models,” IEEE P802.11 Wireless
Proposed scheme LANs, IEEE802.11-03/940r4, May 2004.
[11] Y. Tanabe, A. Hanaki, T. Ohgane, and Y. Ogawa, “Novel spatioemporal
equalization based on cascaded connection of multibeam adaptive array
0.01 and multi-input MLSE,” IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 4, no. 6,
20 25 30 35 40 pp. 2716–2725, Nov. 2005.
Avg. SNR [dB] [12] T. Aoki, Y. Tanabe, H. Matsuoka, and H. Shoki, “Reduced complexity
Fig. 6. Packet error rate for a 3-by-3 MIMO-OFDM system. Max-Log-MAP sphere decoder using group detection in MIMO-OFDM
systems,” IEICE Trans. Commun., vol. E88-B, no. 11, pp. 4220–4228,
Nov. 2005.
[13] E. Lindskog, “Multi-channel maximum likelihood sequence estimation,”
106
in In Proc. IEEE Veh. Tech. Cnf., vol. 2, 1997, pp. 715–719.
[14] G. E. Bottomley, K. J. Molnar, and S. Chennankeshu, “Interference
cancellation with an array processing MLSE receiver,” IEEE Trans. Veh.
Avg. Number of Multiplications

Conventional LSD
with compensation Technol., vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 1321–1331, Sept. 1999.
[15] A. M. Chan and I. Lee, “A new reduced-complexity sphere decoder for
multiple antenna systems,” in In Proc. IEEE ICC2002, vol. 1, Apr. 2002,
pp. 460–464.
[16] B. M. Hochwald and S. ten Brink, “Achieving near-capacity on a
105 multiple-antenna channel,” IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 51, no. 3, pp.
389–399, Mar. 2003.
Conventional LSD [17] S. A. Mujtaba, “Tgn sync proposal technical specification,” IEEE
w/o compensation
802.11-04/889r3, Jan. 2005.

Proposed scheme
104
20 22 24 26 28 30
Avg. SNR [dB]
Fig. 7. A comparison of computational complexities.

PER performance is obtained.

V. C ONCLUSION
We have proposed a compensation scheme of IQ imbalance
using a cascaded connection of MMSE and MLD for MIMO-
OFDM systems. It utilizes the interference between signals
transmitted from two subcarriers whose spatial correlation is
slight. The proposed compensation scheme can achieve almost
the same packet error rate performance as the conventional
compensation scheme even though the computational load is
reduced to about 1/3 of that in the case of the conventional
compensation scheme.

R EFERENCES
[1] İ. E. Telatar, “Capacity of multi-antenna gaussian channels,” European
Trans. on Telecommunications, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 585–595, Nov. 1999.
[2] A. Paulraj, R. Nabar, and D. Gore, Introduction to Space-Time Wireless
Communications. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
[3] A. van Zelst, R. van Nee, and G. A. Awater, “Space division multiplexing
(SDM) for OFDM systems,” in IEEE VTC’2000-Spring Proceedings,
vol. 2, Tokyo, Japan, May 2000, pp. 1070–1074.
[4] A. Tarighat, R. Bagheri, and A. H. Sayed, “Compensation schemes
and performance analysis of IQ imbalances in OFDM receivers,” IEEE
Trans. Signal Processing, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 3257–3268, Aug. 2005.

869