Group-blind multiuser detection for uplink CDMA

Previously developed blind techniques for multiuser detection in code division multiple access (CDMA) systems lead to several near-far resistant adaptive receivers for demodulating a given user's data with the prior knowledge of only the spreading sequence of that user. In the CDMA uplink, however, typically the base station receiver has the knowledge of the spreading sequences of all the users within the cell, but not that of the users from other cells. In this paper, group-blind techniques are developed for multiuser detection in such scenarios. These new techniques make use of the spreading sequences and the estimated multipath channels of all known users to suppress the intracell interference, while blindly suppressing the intercell interference. Several forms of group-blind linear detectors are developed based on different criteria. Moreover, group-blind multiuser detection in the presence of correlated noise is also considered. In this case, two receiving antennas are needed for channel estimation and signal separation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed group-blind linear multiuser detection techniques offer substantial performance gains over the blind linear multiuser detection methods in a CDMA uplink environment     

Resource pooling and effective bandwidths in CDMA networks withmultiuser receivers and spatial diversity

Much of the performance analysis on multiuser receivers for direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems is focused on worst case near-far scenarios. The user capacity of power-controlled networks with multiuser receivers are less well-understood. Tse and Hanly (see ibid., vol.45, p.541-657, 1999) have shown that under some conditions, the user capacity of an uplink power-controlled CDMA cell for several important linear receivers can be very simply characterized via a notion of effective bandwidth. We show that these results extend to the case of antenna arrays. We consider a CDMA system consisting of users transmitting to an antenna array with a multiuser receiver, and obtain the limiting signal-to-interference (SIR) performance in a large system using random spreading sequences. Using this result, we show that the SIR requirements of all the users can be met if and only if the sum of the effective bandwidths of the users is less than the total number of degrees of freedom in the system. The effective bandwidth of a user depends only on its own requirement. Our results show that the total number of degrees of freedom of the whole system is the product of the spreading gain and the number of antennas. In the case when the fading distributions to the antennas are identical, we show that a curious phenomenon of “resource pooling” arises: the multiantenna system behaves like a system with only one antenna but with the processing gain the product of the processing gain of the original system and the number of antennas, and the received power of each user the sum of the received powers at the individual antennas     

Multiuser detection in asynchronous CDMA frequency-selective fading channels

Multipath fading severely limits the performances of conventional code division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. Since every signal passes through an independent frequency-selective fading channel, even modest cross-correlations among signature sequences may induce severe near-far effects in a central multiuser receiver. This paper presents a systematic approach to the detection problem in CDMA frequency-selective fading channels and proposes a low complexity linear multiuser receiver, which eliminates fading induced near-far problem.We initially analyze an optimal multiuser detector, consisting of a bank of RAKE filters followed by a dynamic programming algorithm and evaluate its performance through error probability bounds. The concepts of error sequence decomposition and asymptotic multiuser efficiency, used to characterize the optimal receiver performance, are extended to multipath fading channels.The complexity of the optimal detector motivates the work on a near-far resistant, low complexity decorrelating multiuser detector, which exploits multipath diversity by using a multipath decorrelating filter followed by maximal-ratio combining. Analytic expressions for error probability and asymptotic multiuser efficiency of the suboptimal receiver are derived that include the effects of multipath fading, multiple-access interference and signature sequences correlation on the receiver's performance.The results indicate that multiuser detectors not only alleviate the near-far problem but approach single-user RAKE performance, while preserving the multipath diversity gain. In interference-limited scenarios multiuser receivers significantly outperform the RAKE receiver.This paper was presented in part at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Princeton, NJ, March 1992 and MILCOM'92, San Diego, CA, October 1992. This work was performed while author was with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.     

Finite memory-length linear multiuser detection for asynchronousCDMA communications

Decorrelating, linear, minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE), and noise-whitening multiuser detectors for code-division multiple-access systems (CDMA) are ideally infinite memory-length (referred to as IIR) detectors. To obtain practical detectors, which have low implementation complexity and are suitable for CDMA systems with time-variant system parameters (e.g., the number of users, the delays of users, and the signature waveforms), linear finite-memory-length (referred to as FIR) multiuser detectors are studied in this paper. They are obtained by truncating the IIR detectors or by finding optimal FIR detectors. The signature waveforms are not restricted to be time-invariant (periodic over symbol interval). Thus, linear multiuser detection is generalized to systems with spreading sequences longer than the symbol interval. Conditions for the stability of the truncated detectors are discussed. Stable truncated detectors are shown to be near-far resistant if the received powers are upper bounded, and if the memory length is large enough (but finite). Numerical examples demonstrate that moderate memory lengths are sufficient to obtain the performance of the IIR detectors even with a severe near-far problem     

Distributed power control algorithms for asynchronous CDMA systems in frequency-selective fading channels

In Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) radio environments, the maximum number of supportable users per cell is limited by multipath fading, shadowing, multiple access interference and near-far effects which cause fluctuations of the received power at the base station. In this context, power control and signal detection are essential to provide satisfactory Quality of Service (QoS) and to combat the near-far problem in CDMA systems. In this paper, we raised the uplink power control problem for a generalize asynchronous direct-sequence (DS) CDMA system that explicitly incorporate into the analysis: (1) the propagation delays in the network (generally neglected in the literature), (2) the adverse effect of multipath fading for wireless channels, and (3) the asynchronous transmissions in the uplink channels. This framework is used to propose a distributed power control strategy enhanced with linear multiuser receivers. It is shown that through a proper selection of an error function, the nonlinear coupling among active users is transformed into individual linear loops. A Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) power control strategy is derived and compared with other approaches from the literature. Simulation results show that the uplink channel variations do not destroy the stability of these power control structures. However, delays in the closed-loop paths can severely affect the stability and performance of the resulting feedback schemes. It is also shown that the use of multiuser detection at the base station can bring significant improvements to the performance of power control.     

Linear receivers for the multiple-input multiple-output multiple-access channel

We consider a multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system using code-division multiple access (CDMA) and multiuser detection to discriminate the different users. Our focus is on the CDMA uplink of a frequency-nonselective Rayleigh fading channel. We study two types of receivers: joint receivers, which address simultaneously both spatial and multiple-access interference; and separate receivers, addressing the two types of interference individually. This approach allows assessing the benefits of adding MIMO processing capabilities to existing multiuser single-input single-output systems. For both receiver types, we analyze solutions based on linear (matched filter, decorrelator, minimum mean-square error) and maximum-likelihood receivers. For all the receivers considered, we provide closed-form expressions (as expectations of given functions) of the resulting pairwise error probabilities. Performance results are obtained in terms of frame-error rate versus E/sub b//N/sub 0/, following two different approaches. An analytic approach using large-system asymptotic methods, whereby the system parameters (number of users and antennas, spreading gain) are assumed to grow to infinity with finite limiting ratios. A computer-simulation approach is used to illustrate the differences between asymptotic and simulation results.     

Near-far resistance of linear receivers in chip-asynchronous CDMA systems with random signatures

The paper quantifies the robustness of linear receivers, such as minimum mean-squared error and decorrelating receivers against the near-far problem in chip asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems with random signatures, where both of those linear receivers achieve the optimum near-far resistance. Due to the asynchronism of the system, different symbols of a user see different interference structures which affect their performance differently. Thus, instead of concentrating on any particular symbol of a user, we analyze the average optimum near-far resistance of a randomly selected symbol of that user by providing simple tight upper and lower bounds on it.     

A generalized minimum-mean-output-energy strategy for CDMA systemswith improper MAI

It has been shown that in a direct-sequence/code-division multiple-access (DS/CDMA) system employing binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation the baseband equivalent of the CDMA multiplex is, under very mild assumptions, an improper complex random process, i.e., it has a nonzero pseudoautocorrelation function. The problem of linear multiuser detection for asynchronous DS/CDMA systems with improper multiaccess interference (MAI) is considered. A new mean-output-energy (MOE) cost function is introduced, whose constrained minimization leads to two new linear multiuser detectors, exploiting the information contained in the pseudoautocorrelation of the observables, and which generalize the classical decorrelating and minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receivers. The problem of blind adaptive receiver implementation based on subspace tracking is also tackled. Finally, the superiority of the new detectors with respect to the classical linear detection structures present in the literature is demonstrated through both theoretical considerations and computer simulations     

Linear prediction approach for joint blind equalization and blindmultiuser detection in CDMA systems

For high-speed code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, interchip interference that is caused by multipath propagation becomes severe and cannot be ignored. Together with the multiple access interference due to nonideal conditions in CDMA, they become major obstacles to overall system performance. In this paper, both batch and adaptive algorithms based on linear prediction are proposed for joint blind equalization and multiuser detection for asynchronous CDMA systems. It is shown that the new methods are insensitive to estimation error of propagation delay or chip timing. In addition, the adaptive algorithm is computationally efficient. Simulation results show that the proposed methods are also near-far resistant and compare favorably to many existing methods     

Linear space-time multiuser detection for multipath CDMA channels

We consider the problem of detecting synchronous code division multiple access (CDMA) signals in multipath channels that result in multiple access interference (MAI). It is well known that such challenging conditions may create severe near-far situations in which the standard techniques of combined power control and temporal single-user RAKE receivers provide poor performance. To address the shortcomings of the RAKE receiver, multiple antenna receivers combining space-time processing with multiuser detection have been proposed in the literature. Specifically, a space-time detector based on minimizing the mean-squared output between the data stream and the linear combiner output has shown great potential in achieving good near-far performance with much less complexity than the optimum space-time multiuser detector. Moreover, this space-time minimum mean-squared error (ST-MMSE) multiuser detector has the additional advantage of being well suited for adaptive implementation. We propose novel trained and blind adaptive algorithms based on stochastic gradient techniques, which are shown to approximate the ST-MMSE solution without requiring knowledge of the channel. We show that these linear space-time detectors can potentially provide significant capacity enhancements (up to one order of magnitude) over the conventional temporal single-user RAKE receiver     

Space-Time Receiver for Multi-Rate CDMA Systems: Multi-Code and Variable Spreading Length Access Methods Comparison

This work proposed the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) space-timereceivers for synchronous multi-rate direct sequence code devision multipleaccess (DS/CDMA) systems. The performance of the proposed receivers isanalyzed. The high-rate (HR) LMMSE space-time receiver with combiningtechnique can provide essentially the same performance for low-rate (LR) usersas LR LMMSE space-time receiver while eliminate the time delay for the HRusers. The performance of the proposed multi-rate LMMSE space-time receiversare studied in the context of two multi-rate access methods: multi-code (MC)access where high data rate users multiplex their information streams ontomultiple codes, and variable spreading length (VSL) access where signaturesequences of different lengths are assigned to users with different datarates.Through the simulation results, we show that: (a) the proposed multi-rateLMMSE space-time receivers are optimum near-far resistant; (b) the proposedmulti-rate LMMSE space-time receivers have a clear performance improvementcompared to the time only LMMSE dual rate receiver; (c) there is a performancegain of the proposed multi-rate LMMSE space-time receivers compared to themulti-rate decorrelating space-time receiver when near-far ratio (NFR) is low;(d) The performance difference between MMSE combining and MRC in multi-ratesystem is much more pronounced than in single-rate system. Simulations alsoshow that the VSL access method is more robust than MC access methodconsidering changing rate-ratio in multi-rate systems.     

Analysis of an adaptive decorrelating detector for synchronous CDMAchannels

Multiuser detection allows for the efficient use of bandwidth in code-division multiple-access (CDMA) channels through mitigation of near-far effects and multiple-access noise limitations. The decorrelating detector, developed by Lupas and Verdu (1989), is a linear multiuser detector that is asymptotically optimal in terms of near-far resistance when certain communication parameters are completely known to the detector. In this paper, a simple adaptive decorrelating detector is developed by placing constraints on the set of spreading codes to be used by the active users. This adaptive detector has two modules: it first decorrelates the existing users, and then it determines the spreading code of a new user entering the network with or without the use of a training sequence. Maximum likelihood detection is proposed for determining the new user's spreading code. The performance of this algorithm is studied by investigating the probability of making an error in determining the new user's spreading code as a function of the number of samples used to make the determination, the number of users transmitting, and the signal to noise ratio of the new user with respect to the ambient Gaussian noise     

Optimally near-far resistant multiuser detection in differentiallycoherent synchronous channels

The noncoherent demodulation of differentially phase-shift keyed signals transmitted simultaneously via a synchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) channel is studied under the assumption of white Gaussian background noise. A class of noncoherent linear detectors is defined with the objective of obtaining the optimal one. The performance criterion considered is near-far resistance that denotes worst-case multiuser asymptotic efficiency over near-far environments. It is shown that the optimal linear detector is a noncoherent decorrelating detector. The commonality between the properties of the decorrelating detectors for coherent and noncoherent channels is established. In particular, it is shown that no other differential phase-shift keying (DPSK), multiuser detector achieves a higher near-far resistance than does the noncoherent decorrelator     

Performance of CDMA random access systems with packet combining in fading channels

We analyze the system performance of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) random access systems with linear receivers and packet combing in multipath fading channels. Both slotted and unslotted CDMA systems with random spreading codes are considered. The analysis is based on large systems in which both the offered load and the processing gain tend to infinity but their ratio is fixed. It is relatively easy to characterize the traffic in such large systems, which enables us to derive the system throughput and average delay. From the analysis results, it is observed that multiuser detection and packet combining substantially improve the system performance.     

A Unified Approach to Power control in Large Energy-Constrained CDMS Systems

A unified approach to power control is proposed for maximizing utility in terms of energy efficiency in code-division multiple access (CDMA) networks. The approach is applicable to a large family of multiuser receivers including the matched filter, the decorrelator, the linear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receiver, and the (nonlinear) optimal detectors. It exploits the linear relationship between the transmit power and the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SIR) for each user in the large-system limit. Suppose that each user seeks to selfishly maximize its own energy efficiency, a unique Nash equilibrium is shown to exist and be SIR-balanced, thus extending a previous result on linear receivers. A unified power control algorithm for reaching the Nash equilibrium is proposed, which adjusts transmit powers iteratively by computing the large-system multiuser efficiency, which is independent of instantaneous spreading sequences. The convergence of the algorithm is proved for linear receivers, and is demonstrated via simulation for the multiuser maximum likelihood detector. Moreover, the performance of the algorithm in finite-size systems is studied and compared with that of a conventional power control scheme, in which user powers depend on the instantaneous spreading sequences.     

Optimal decorrelating receivers for DS-CDMA systems: a signalprocessing framework

Code division multiple access (CDMA) schemes allow a number of asynchronous users to share a transmission medium with minimum cooperation among them. However, sophisticated signal processing algorithms are needed at the receiver to combat interference from other users and multipath effects. A discrete-time multirate formulation is introduced for asynchronous CDMA systems, which can incorporate multipath effects. This formulation reveals interesting links between CDMA receivers and array processing problems. In this framework, linear receivers are derived that can completely suppress multiuser interference (decorrelating receivers). A criterion is introduced, which guarantees the decorrelating property, while providing optimal solutions in the presence of noise. Parametric FIR designs as well as nonparametric solutions are delineated, and their performance is analyzed. The proposed receivers are resistant to near-far effects and do not require the estimation of the users' and noise powers     

On the average near-far resistance for MMSE detection of directsequence CDMA signals with random spreading

The performance of a near-far-resistant, finite-complexity, minimum mean squared error (MMSE) linear detector for demodulating direct sequence (DS) code-division multiple access (CDMA) signals is studied, assuming that the users are assigned random signature sequences. We obtain tight upper and lower bounds on the expected near-far resistance of the MMSE detector, averaged over signature sequences and delays, as a function of the processing gain and the number of users. Since the MMSE detector is optimally near-far-resistant, these bounds apply to any multiuser detector that uses the same observation interval and sampling rate. The lower bound on near-far resistance implies that, even without power control, linear multiuser detection provides near-far-resistant performance for a number of users that grows linearly with the processing gain     

Adaptive transmitter optimization for blind and group-blind multiuser detection

The linear subspace-based blind and group-blind multiuser detectors recently developed represent a robust and efficient adaptive multiuser detection technique for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. In this paper, we consider adaptive transmitter optimization strategies for CDMA systems operating in fading multipath environments in which these detectors are employed. We make use of more recent results on the analytical performance of these blind and group-blind receivers in the design and analysis of the transmitter optimization techniques. In particular, we develop a maximum-eigenvector-based method of optimizing spreading codes for given channel conditions and a utility-based power control algorithm for CDMA systems with blind or group-blind multiuser detection. We also design a receiver incorporating joint optimization of spreading codes and transmitter power by combining these algorithms in an iterative configuration. We will see that the utility-based power control algorithm allows us to efficiently set performance goals through utility functions for users in heterogeneous traffic environments and that spreading code optimization allows us to achieve these goals with lower transmit power. The signal processing algorithms presented here maintain the blind (or group-blind) nature of the receiver and are distributed, i.e., all power and spreading code adjustments can be made using only locally available information.     

Performance analysis of linear multiuser detectors for randomlyspread CDMA using Gaussian approximation

The performance of a linear decorrelating detector (LDD) and a minimum mean square error (MMSE) detector is analyzed for random spreading waveforms. The performance of the LDD and MMSE detectors is expressed in terms of the so-called near-far resistance, defined by a reciprocal of a diagonal component of inverse matrix. For random code division multiple access, which employs random spreading waveforms, the near-far resistance can be regarded as a random variable. Many papers have dealt with the analysis of multiuser detectors for random spreading sequences. In most cases, however, these analyses derived only the expectations or bounds for the near-far resistance. In this paper, we directly derive the approximate probability density function (PDF) of the near-far resistance and corresponding bit error rate expression for random spreading sequences. It is based on Gaussian approximation of the cross correlation between any two randomly generated spreading codes. The resulting PDF turned out to be a reversed-and-scaled version of chi-square distribution. The approximate expressions, both the PDF and the corresponding bit error rate expression, were verified via Monte Carlo simulations. The results showed that the approximation is quite close to the simulation results when the number of users is less than half the processing gain     

Performance of multiuser detection in multirate DS-CDMA systems

The performance of multirate direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems is considered. We compare two multirate schemes: variable spreading length (VSL-CDMA) and multicode (MC-CDMA). The performance in terms of asymptotic multiuser efficiency (AME) and near-far resistance (NFR) for various detectors are evaluated. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that in multirate systems, MC-CDMA has a similar performance to that of VSL-CDMA employing low-rate detection in terms of multirate AME (MAME) and multirate NFR (MNFR). A lower bound for the optimal MNFR is also obtained and is shown to be that of the linear decorrelator in multirate systems. Thus, this implies that the decorrelator is no longer optimal in the sense of MNFR.