Impact of spreading bandwidth on RAKE reception in dense multipathchannels

Spread spectrum (SS) multiple access techniques have been proposed for third generation broadband wireless access. We develop an analytical framework to quantify the effects of spreading bandwidth on SS systems operating in dense multipath environments in terms of the receiver performance, receiver complexity, and multipath channel parameters. In particular, we consider wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) Gaussian channels with frequency-selective fading. The focus of the paper is to characterize the combined signal of the RAKE receiver fingers tracking the strongest multipath components. Closed form expressions for the mean and the variance of the total RAKE receiver output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are derived in terms of the number of RAKE fingers, spreading bandwidth, and multipath spread of the channel. The proposed problem is made analytically tractable by transforming the physical RAKE paths into the virtual path domain. A representative result indicates that for SS systems with 5 MHz signal bandwidth operating in a channel with constant power delay profile having 5 μs spread, the average SNR gain from increasing the number of RAKE fingers from one to three is 3.8 dB and from three to five is 1.5 dB. Furthermore, the reduction in the variation of SNR is 1.1 dB and 0.4 dB for the same increments in the number of fingers     

Performance analysis of space-time transmitter diversity techniques for WCDMA using long range prediction

Transmitter diversity in the downlink of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems achieves similar performance gains to the mobile-station receiver diversity without the complexity of a mobile-station receiver antenna array. Pre-RAKE precoding at the transmitter can be employed to achieve the multipath diversity without the need of the RAKE receiver at the mobile station. We examine feasibility of several transmitter diversity techniques and precoding for the third-generation wideband CDMA (WCDMA) systems. In particular, selective transmit diversity, transmit adaptive array and space-time pre-RAKE (STPR) techniques are compared. It is demonstrated that the STPR method is the optimal method to combine antenna diversity and temporal precoding. This method achieves the gain of maximum ratio combining of all space and frequency diversity branches when perfect channel state information is available at the transmitter. We employ the long range fading prediction algorithm to enable transmitter diversity techniques for rapidly time varying multipath fading channels.     

A multipath interference cancellation technique for WCDMA downlink receivers

In this paper, we present a simple interference cancellation technique for the downlink of wideband code‐division multiple‐access (WCDMA) systems in multipath environment. With the same knowledge required by a RAKE receiver, the present method acts as an equalizer and cancels the interfering multipath signals from the received signal to retrieve the orthogonality property of the received signal. The present receiver has a simple structure and it has significant performance gain against the RAKE receiver. In addition, the noise enhancement is negligible when there is a line of sight path or the channel power delay profile has an exponential decaying form. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multicarrier CDMA architecture based on orthogonal complementarycodes for new generations of wideband wireless communications

This article is a review of our ongoing research effort to construct a new multicarrier CDMA architecture based on orthogonal complete complementary codes, characterized by its innovative spreading modulation scheme, uplink and downlink signaling design, and digital receiver implementation for multipath signal detection. There are several advantages of the proposed CDMA architecture compared to conventional CDMA systems pertinent to current 2G and 3G standards. First of all, it can achieve a spreading efficiency (SE) very close to one (the SE is defined as the amount of information bit(s) conveyed by each chip); whereas SEs of conventional CDMA systems equal 1/N, where N denotes the length of spreading codes. Second, it offers MAI-free operation in both upand downlink transmissions in an MAI-AWGN channel, which can significantly reduce the co-channel interference responsible for capacity decline of a CDMA system. Third, the proposed CDMA architecture is able to offer a high bandwidth efficiency due to the use of its unique spreading modulation scheme and orthogonal carriers. Lastly, the proposed CDMA architecture is particularly suited to multirate signal transmission due to the use of an offset stacked spreading modulation scheme, which simplifies the rate-matching algorithm relevant to multimedia services and facilitates asymmetric traffic in up- and downlink transmissions for IP-based applications. Based on the above characteristics and the obtained results, it is concluded that the proposed CDMA architecture has a great potential for applications in future wideband mobile communications beyond 3G, which is expected to offer a very high data rate in hostile mobile channels     

An optimum interference mitigating combining scheme for the CDMA downlink with the same complexity as MRC

This letter presents a new optimum interference mitigating combining (OIMC) scheme for the code-division multiple-access downlink RAKE receiver. The OIMC scheme optimizes the RAKE weights and maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the RAKE combiner output. Unlike other interference mitigation schemes, the new scheme does not need to estimate the interference or data correlation matrix (and its inverse) of the received signal to render a reliable and low complexity receiver. The OIMC scheme mitigates interference by inversely proportionately weighting the finger output by its associated interference power, while simultaneously mitigating multipath fading. The interference power is found to be directly related to the finger's associated multipath channel gain, rendering the OIMC scheme with the same order of complexity as a maximal ratio combining (MRC) scheme. Under realistic channel conditions, simulation results show that the proposed OIMC scheme always outperforms MRC with a gain of up to more than 1 dB.     

Comparison of MC-CDMA with DS-CDMA using frequency domain and time domain RAKE receivers

In this paper a multicarrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) system with a soft decision differential phase shift keying (DPSK) frequency domain RAKE receiver is described. We compare a MC-CDMA system with a direct sequence CDMA system using RAKE receivers. In contrast with previous MC-CDMA systems, guard intervals are not used and the carriers are spaced at the reciprocal of the bit rate, optimising the usage of the bandwidth. In this way a comparison can be made between the multicarrier CDMA system described and a direct sequence (DS-CDMA) system with the same bandwidth. The results presented are received bit error rates from Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations are conducted in a multipath channel with Rayleigh fading and 300 Hz Doppler spectrum with additive white Gaussian noise. It is shown that the multicarrier CDMA matched filter receiver performs favourably compared to the direct sequence CDMA matched filter receiver for 1 -path fading. For a single user at a receive bit error rate of 1×10^–3 in the 4-path fading channel the multicarrier RAKE receiver requires no knowledge of the channel delay spread and performs 3 dB worse than the DS-CDMA RAKE receiver simulated. The performance of the MC-CDMA RAKE receiver for a single user increases with increasing channel dispersion. The performance of the DS-CDMA RAKE receiver for multiple user is superior to that of the MC-CDMA RAKE receiver.     

Slow frequency-hopping multicarrier DS-CDMA for transmission overNakagami multipath fading channels

A novel multiple access scheme based on slow frequency hopping multicarrier direct-sequence code division multiple access (SFH/MC DS-CDMA) is proposed and investigated, which can be rendered compatible with the existing second-generation narrowband CDMA and third-generation wideband CDMA systems. The frequency hopping patterns are controlled by a set of constant-weight codes. Consequently, multirate communications can be implemented by selecting the corresponding sets of constant-weight codes having the required weights controlling the SFH patterns invoked. Two FH schemes, namely random and uniform FH, are considered and their advantages as well as disadvantages are investigated. We assume that the system operates in a multipath fading environment and a RAKE receiver structure with maximum ratio combining (MRC) is used for demodulation. The system's performance is evaluated over the range of multipath Nakagami (1960) fading channels, under the assumption that the receiver has all explicit knowledge of the associated frequency-hopping (FH) patterns invoked. Furthermore, the performance of the SFH/MC DS-CDMA system is compared to that of the conventional single-carrier (SC) DS-CDMA system and that of the conventional MC DS-CDMA system, under the assumptions of constant system bandwidth and of constant transmitted signal power     

Block precoding for MUI/ISI-resilient generalized multicarrier CDMAwith multirate capabilities

Potential increase in capacity along with the need to provide multimedia services and cope with multiuser interference (MUI) and intersymbol interference (ISI) arising due to wireless multipath propagation, motivate well multirate wideband code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. Unlike most existing continuous-time symbol-periodic and multipath-free studies, the present paper develops an all-digital block-precoded filter-bank framework capable of encompassing single- or multirate transceivers for asynchronous or quasi-synchronous CDMA transmissions through multipath channels. Thanks to symbol blocking and through appropriate design of user codes, the resulting generalized multicarrier (GMC) CDMA system not only subsumes known multicarrier CDMA variants, but also equips them with flexible multirate capabilities. It is computationally simple, and guarantees symbol recovery regardless of the (possibly unknown) FIR multipath channels in both downlink and uplink setups. Simulations corroborate that the novel GMC-CDMA system outperforms existing multirate alternatives in the presence of asynchronism and multipath, and illustrate the feasibility of recovering blindly multirate transmissions received through unknown frequency-selective channels in the uplink. The performance of GMC-CDMA system in UMTS channels is also simulated and compared with existing multirate schemes     

The effect of low SNR in phase estimation in wideband CDMA

In wideband code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems, where large diversity gains are used to mitigate the effects of multipath fading, system performance is increasingly limited by channel estimation error. In a packet-based system, the estimation error can be reduced by increasing the header length; however this, for a fixed bandwidth, reduces the amount of transmit energy available to the data symbols and reduces the processing gain of the system. To determine the allocation of the transmit energy between the data and estimation symbols in order to minimize the probability of bit error, we use an approximate upper bound on the probability of bit error for a RAKE receiver operating with imperfect phase estimates     

Performance of DS-CDMA over measured indoor radio channels usingrandom orthogonal codes

Direct sequence spread spectrum, with its inherent resistance to multipath interference, has become a commercial reality for indoor wireless communications and has been proposed for personal communication networks. To allow multiple users within the limited bandwidths allocated by the FCC, code-division multiple-access (CDMA) is needed. This paper analyzes the performance of CDMA systems using random orthogonal codes over fading multipath indoor radio channels using channel measurements from five different buildings. The effect of RAKE receiver structure is studied, as is the effect of average power control. The average probability of error as a function of signal-to-noise ratio is used as the performance criteria. Results are compared with models for Rayleigh fading channels     

WCDMA下行信道RAKE接收机的性能分析

在第三代移动通信WCDMA的最新通信标准^[1]中,下行信道在保留时分复用导频符号的同时,新增了公共导频信道.本文针对WCDMA这一最新改变,给出了利用公共导频信道进行信道估计,实现相干RAKE接收的模型算法、性能分析及仿真结果.仿真表明,利用公共导频信道的RAKE接收机性能明显优于时分插入导频符号辅助的RAKE接收机的性能,尤其在高速及变速运动情况下,而且具有信道估计算法简单、信道跟踪实时性强的特点.     

Performance comparisons of channel estimation techniques in multipath fading CDMA

The problem of pilot-symbol-aided estimation of multipath fading channels in up-link code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems is considered. The transmitted symbol streams of each user are divided into time-slots; and each time-slot contains a number of pilot-symbols followed by information data symbols. Channel estimation is based on interpolation of the channel values corresponding to the pilot symbols in adjacent time-slots. Existing channel estimation techniques, including the weighted multislot average method and the wavelet expansion method, are studied. Two new channel estimation methods, namely, the robust channel interpolator, and the polynomial channel interpolator, are developed and are compared with these techniques. It is seen that the two new channel estimation methods significantly outperform the existing methods in multipath fading CDMA systems, for a wide range of Doppler values, and under various receiver schemes (with single or multiple receive antennas), such as the RAKE receiver, the interference cancellation receiver, and a receiver which performs iterative channel estimation and interference cancellation.     

Downlink Specific Linear Equalization for Frequency Selective CDMA Cellular Systems

We derive and compare several linear equalizers for the CDMA downlink under frequency selective multipath conditions: minimum mean-square error (MMSE), zero-forcing (ZF), and RAKE. MMSE and ZF equalizers are designed based on perfect knowledge of the channel. The downlink specific structure involves first inverting the multipath channel to restore the synchronous multi-user signal transmitted from the base-station at the chip-rate, and then correlating with the product of the desired user's channel code times the base-station specific scrambling code once per symbol to decode the symbols. ZF equalization restores orthogonality of the Walsh-Hadamard channel codes on the downlink but often suffers from noise gain because certain channel conditions (no common zeros) are not met; MMSE restores orthogonality only approximately but avoids excessive noise gain. We compare MMSE and ZF to the traditional matched filter (also known as the RAKE receiver). Our formulation generalizes for the multi-channel case as might be derived from multiple antennas and/or over-sampling with respect to the chip-rate. The optimal symbol-level MMSE equalizer is derived and slightly out-performs the chip-level but at greater computational cost. An MMSE soft hand-off receiver is derived and simulated. Average BER for a class of multi-path channels is presented under varying operating conditions of single-cell and edge-of-cell, coded and un-coded BPSK data symbols, and uncoded 16-QAM. These simulations indicate large performance gains compared to the RAKE receiver, especially when the cell is fully loaded with users. Bit error rate (BER) performance for the chip-level equalizers is well predicted by approximate SINR expressions and a Gaussian interference assumption.     

Combined multiuser detection and diversity reception for wirelessCDMA systems

Code division multiple-access (CDMA) techniques using interference cancellation are being explored for the capacity increase in third-generation universal mobile telecommunications systems. However, multipath fading is a major constraint on the performance of wireless CDMA systems, with multipath propagation worsening the effects of multiple-access interference, and fading on propagation paths leading to the near far problem. Multiuser detection, exploiting the knowledge of other users to cancel multiple-access interference, has the capability of eliminating the near far problem and providing a significant capacity increase in CDMA systems. On the other hand, diversity techniques effectively combat the fading effects of the channel. This paper investigates multiuser receivers that combine explicit antenna diversity, RAKE multipath diversity, and multipath decorrelating detection. Both coherent reception with maximal-ratio combining and differentially coherent reception with equal-gain combining are analyzed. The results demonstrate a significant increase in up-link capacity over the conventional RAKE receiver, at the expense of complexity. In the case of limited receiver complexity, where the number of correlators is less than the number of resolvable paths at the RAKE front-end, antenna diversity is shown to be effective in reducing residual multiple-access interference     

Performance of DS-CDMA receivers with MRC in nakagami-m fading channels with arbitrary fading parameters

The receivers that combine spatial antenna diversity with temporal multipath diversity are known as two-dimensional (2-D) RAKE receivers. In this paper, we consider the outage probability and the bit error rate performance of a coherent binary phase shift keying 2-D RAKE receiver in the context of an asynchronous direct sequence (DS)-code division multiple access (CDMA) system operating in a Nakagami-m fading channel with real and arbitrary fading parameters. The closed-form expressions derived for the two wireless performance measures are easily evaluated numerically and enable the link designer to examine the effects of system parameters, such as the number of receive antennas, RAKE fingers per antenna, and asynchronous CDMA users in the cell, as well as channel conditions, such as the amount of fading in the combined paths and the multipath intensity profile of the channel on the link performance. In addition, the diversity loss due to correlated fading among the spatially separated RAKE fingers is quantified.     

Suboptimal multiuser detector for frequency-selective Rayleighfading synchronous CDMA channels

Proposes a suboptimal low-complexity multiuser receiver for synchronous CDMA frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. In contrast to the conventional RAKE receiver, which suffers from near-far effects due to channel fading, the proposed multiuser receiver is shown to alleviate the near-far problem while preserving multipath diversity gain. This is demonstrated by comparing the symbol error probability and asymptotic multiuser efficiency of the proposed multiuser detector and RAKE receiver     

Analysis of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum cellular radio system

The uplink and downlink performance of a digital cellular radio system that uses direct sequence code division multiple access is evaluated. Approximate expressions are derived for the area averaged bit error probability while accounting for the effects of path loss, log-normal shadowing, multipath-fading, multiple-access interference, and background noise. Three differentially coherent receivers are considered: a multipath rejection receiver, a RAKE receiver with predetection selective diversity combining, and a RAKE receiver with postdetection equal gain combining. The RAKE receivers are shown to improve the performance significantly, except when the channel consists of a single faded path. Error correction coding is also shown to substantially improve the performance, except for slowly fading channels     

2-D rake receiver based on space-time channel parameter estimation

2-D RAKE receiver is an efficient way to realize the space-time processing for CDMA systems with aperiodic spreading codes. The Direction Of Arrival (DOA) and the relative time delay of every user's multipath must be known to realize the 2-D RAKE receiver. In the third generation CDMA mobile communication system, auxiliary pilot channel is used in the uplink channels. The different user's Vector Channel Impulse Response (VCIR) can be estimated from the pilot channel easily. The VCIR contains spatial and temporal information. In this paper, by utilizing the known pulse shape function, a parameter matrix method used to estimate the Spatial Signature Vector (SSV) and the relative time delay is proposed in frequency domain. The DOA can be estimated from the SSV. By reconstructing the SSV and utilizing approximate Capon space filter, the performance of the 2-D RAKE receiver with uniform circular array can be improved with a little additional computation work.     

A statistical approach to the analysis of DS/CDMA cellular systemsemploying RAKE receivers and sectorized antennas

RAKE receivers and sectorized antennas are used in direct-sequence/code-division multiple-access (DS/CDMA) cellular systems to improve the system performance. This paper presents a statistical method for analyzing the performance of DS/CDMA cellular radio systems employing RAKE receivers and sectorized antennas. Average bit error rates in the system are estimated considering the multipath fading effects of the environment. (The fast fading is assumed to be Rayleigh distributed, and the distance-dependent means of the multipath components have an exponential power delay profile.) The analysis of RAKE receivers quantifies the performance improvement that could be achieved by increasing the number of RAKE fingers. Sectorized antennas improve the system performance by reducing the interference at the receiver. In a perfectly sectorized system, assuming three sectors per cell, the capacity of the system can be improved by a factor of three. However, due to the imperfection in practical antennas, it is not possible to achieve this improvement. The performance of systems employing practical sectorized antennas (with finite front-to-back ratios and overlapping sectors) is compared with the performance of perfectly sectorized systems. The analysis shows that the incremental performance improvement diminishes with each incremental increase in the number of RAKE fingers. Performance degradation due to finite front-to-back ratio is shown to be insignificant for practical values of the front-to-back ratio of sectorized antennas. However, the reliability of mobile reception can be degraded significantly in areas where adjacent sectors overlap     

Downlink performance analysis of a BPSK-based WCDMA usingconventional RAKE receivers with channel estimation

We consider the downlink of a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System terrestrial radio access-wideband code division multiple access (UTRA-WCDMA) system and we investigate the performance of the conventional RAKE receiver. A multipath slowly Rayleigh fading channel is assumed. For the purpose of channel tap weight estimation, a common control physical channel, that is either serial or parallel multiplexed with the dedicated physical channels, is used. The receiver sensitivity to imperfect knowledge of the path delays, to the number of pilot symbols, and to the power ratio of pilot to data channels is also investigated. The system performance is evaluated by means of bit-error rates (BERs) derived using quadratic forms and characteristic functions for a BPSK modulation. The mean-squared estimation error (MSEE) of the channel tap weights is also computed and compared to the classical Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). The mutual interference between pilot and data symbols is taken into account