Process for processing MIMO data streams in a 3GPP HSDPA receiver, and receiver for doing the same

1. A Multiple In Multiple Out (MIMO) receiver for processing N data streams received by N antennas for a direct-sequence (DS) spread-spectrum wireless communication system comprising:

a linear time equalizer operating at the chip level for performing linear chip level Inter-Chip Interference (ICI) and all Inter-Stream Interference (ISI) cancellation (Channel Shortening) of said N data streams, and generating N shortened output chip level data streams;

de-spreading blocks for separately de-spreading the N outputs of said linear equalizer; and

a non linear detector receiving said N shortened output chip level data streams for performing joint spatial equalization and multi-stream detection.

2. The MIMO receiver according to claim 1 wherein the number of data streams is two.

3. The MIMO receiver according to claim 1 wherein said non linear detector is a Near-Maximum Likehood detector.

4. The MIMO receiver according to claim 3 wherein said non linear detector is a SPHERE DECODER.

5. The MIMO receiver according to claim 1 wherein it further includes a Rx HARQ block for packets retransmission and a decoding block.

6. The MIMO receiver according to claim 1 adapted to a 3GPP HSDPA communication system.

7. A User Equipment for a 3GPP HSDPA communication system comprising two antennas for receiving two MIMO data streams, wherein it further includes:

a linear equalizer operating at the chip level for performing linear chip level Inter-Chip Interference (ICI) and all Inter-Stream Interference (ISI) cancellation (Channel Shortening) of said N data streams, and generating N output chip level data streams;

de-spreading blocks for separately de-spreading the N outputs of said linear equalizer; and

a non linear detector receiving said N output chip level data streams for performing joint spatial equalization and multi-stream detection.

8. A process for processing a set of N MIMO data stream in a receiver of a direct-sequence (DS) spread-spectrum wireless communication, comprising the following steps:

receiving via N antennas N data streams of information encoded and modulated by a pseudonoise (PN) sequence;

performing a linear chip level Inter-Chip Interference (ICI) and all Inter-Stream Interference (ISI) cancellation and outputting N shortened chip level data streams;

de-spreading said N shortened data streams in order to convert them at the symbol rate; and

performing joint spatial multi-stream detection of said N despread shortened data streams.

9. The process according to claim 8 wherein said spatial multi-stream detection is performed by means of a non-linear near-Maximum Likehood detection.

10. The process according to claim 9 wherein said near-Maximum Likehood detection is based on a sphere decoder.

11. The process according to claim 8 wherein it is applied to HSDPA.