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.