  The sphere decoder (SD) is an attractive low-complexity alternative to
maximum likelihood (ML) detection in a variety of communication systems. It is
also employed in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems where the
computational complexity of the optimum detector grows exponentially with the
number of transmit antennas. We propose an enhanced version of the SD based on
an additional cost function derived from conditions on worst case interference,
that we call dominance conditions. The proposed detector, the king sphere
decoder (KSD), has a computational complexity that results to be not larger
than the complexity of the sphere decoder and numerical simulations show that
the complexity reduction is usually quite significant.
