Adaptive multiuser interference suppression for CDM satellite systems

This paper deals with the application of linear multiuser detectors in mobile terminals of code division multiplex (CDM) satellite systems. Generally, the interference caused by other users can dramatically reduce the performance of a CDM‐based satellite communication system. Since no spreading information of other users is given and since there are no trainings sequences, a blind adaptive interference detector with low complexity is needed. In order to implement a detector for suppressing the interference from other users, different adaptation algorithms can be applied. Comparing them in terms of complexity, adaptation speed and bit error rate, the LMS (least means squares) algorithm with adaptive step size shows the best performance. However, the implementation of this algorithm in a satellite system still leads to high processing times. For this reason, two new schemes with reduced complexity are presented. A very important point is, that the adaptive algorithms are basically restricted to short spreading codes (code period equals symbol period) whereas CDM‐based satellite systems use long codes (one‐code period spans over multiple symbols). In this paper, a new scheme is presented which can be applied to long codes. By cascading multiple separated interference detectors the adaptation is done every time when the same part of the spreading sequence appears. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.