Embodiments of the invention provide a decoder for decoding a signal received through a transmission channel in a communication system, said signal comprising a vector of information symbols, said transmission channel being represented by an upper triangular matrix, wherein the decoder comprises: a processing unit (309) configured to determine a set of division parameters depending on at least one division metric derived from components of said upper triangular matrix; a decoding unit (311) configured to divide said upper triangular matrix into two or more sub-matrices using said set of division parameters in accordance with a division of said vector of information symbols into two or more sub-vectors, and to determine at least one estimate of each sub-vector of information symbols by applying a symbol estimation algorithm, wherein the decoder is configured to determine at least one estimate of said vector of information symbols from the estimates of said sub-vectors of information symbols.