A Beamforming Combined Iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining Detection Algorithm for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Systems

PEI Errong; JI Xianghui; SUN Yuanxin; LI Wei

doi:10.11999/JEIT241035

Volume 47 Issue 7

Jul. 2025

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PEI Errong, JI Xianghui, SUN Yuanxin, LI Wei. A Beamforming Combined Iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining Detection Algorithm for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology, 2025, 47(7): 2089-2097. doi: 10.11999/JEIT241035

Citation:

PEI Errong, JI Xianghui, SUN Yuanxin, LI Wei. A Beamforming Combined Iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining Detection Algorithm for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology, 2025, 47(7): 2089-2097. doi: 10.11999/JEIT241035

Citation:

PEI Errong, JI Xianghui, SUN Yuanxin, LI Wei. A Beamforming Combined Iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining Detection Algorithm for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Systems[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology, 2025, 47(7): 2089-2097. doi: 10.11999/JEIT241035

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A Beamforming Combined Iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining Detection Algorithm for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Systems

doi: 10.11999/JEIT241035 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT241035

1.
School of Communications and Information Engineering, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
2.
Aerospace Jinmei (Chongqing) Communication Co., Ltd., Chongqing 400035, China

Funds: The Key Project of Science and Technology Research of Chongqing Education Commission, China (KJZD-M202400602), Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (CSTB2024NSCQ-MSX0731)

Received Date: 2024-11-22
Rev Recd Date: 2025-05-21

Available Online: 2025-06-06

Publish Date: 2025-07-22

Abstract

Abstract

Objective The rapid advancement of wireless communication has introduced new waveform and modulation requirements for high-mobility scenarios such as vehicular networks, high-speed railways, and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Traditional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) performs poorly in such environments due to severe Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI). To address this, Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS), a two-dimensional modulation scheme that maps data in the Delay-Doppler (DD) domain, has been proposed. OTFS transforms complex Time-Frequency (TF) domain channels into sparse DD domain representations and has demonstrated improved performance over OFDM under high mobility. Signal detection plays a critical role in realizing OTFS benefits, and extensive studies have focused on DD-domain sparsity-based detection algorithms. However, in complex scenarios—such as urban vehicular networks, drone formations, and multi-user MIMO systems—DD-domain sparsity is often absent. This condition significantly increases detection complexity and degrades accuracy at the receiver. Methods A beamforming combined iterative Dual-Maximum Ratio Combining (Dual MRC) detection algorithm is proposed for OTFS systems (Algorithm 1). The approach utilizes a multi-antenna array and a beamforming network at the receiver to initially separate signals arriving from different angles within the multipath channel. This separation enhances channel matrix sparsity and provides diversity gain. By leveraging the computational simplicity of OTFS signals in the Delay-Time (DT) domain, the algorithm coherently combines multipath components within each beamforming branch and iteratively across branches. This process gradually refines the signal estimate and converges toward the optimal transmitted signal. Results and Discussions Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves Bit Error Rate (BER) performance compared with several conventional detection methods. In particular, relative to the beamforming Message Passing-MRC (MP-MRC) algorithm, it achieves better BER performance (Fig. 2) and reduces both the number of iterations and the iteration time required to reach convergence (Fig. 3). The algorithm also maintains robust BER performance as terminal mobility increases (Fig. 4), as the DD grid size $ N \times M $ expands (Fig. 5), and as the number of channel paths $ L $ grows (Fig. 6). Furthermore, compared with MP-MRC, the proposed method reduces computational complexity by two orders of magnitude while further improving detection performance (Table 2, Fig. 2). Conclusions This study addresses the limitations of existing OTFS detection algorithms using multi-antenna and beamforming receivers, which often suffer from high computational complexity or limited accuracy. A beamforming combined iterative Dual MRC detection algorithm operating in the DT domain is proposed to enhance receiver performance. Simulation results show that the proposed method substantially improves BER performance compared with conventional algorithms. In particular, relative to the beamforming-based MP-MRC algorithm, it achieves a marked reduction in computational complexity while improving detection accuracy. These results indicate that the proposed algorithm offers an effective and computationally efficient solution for OTFS signal detection in complex communication environments.
- Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS),
- Signal detection,
- Beamforming,
- Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC)

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References(20)

References

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