Blind multiuser channel estimation in asynchronous CDMA systems

In asynchronous code division multiple access (A-CDMA) systems transmitting over multipath channels, both intersymbol interference (ISI) as a result of interchip interference (ICI) and multiple access interference (MAI) cannot be easily eliminated. Although it is possible to design multiuser detectors that suppress MAI and ISI, these detectors often require explicit knowledge of at least the desired users' signature waveform. Recently, Liu and Xu (see Proc. 29th Asilomar Conf. Signals, Systems and Computers, 1996) introduced a blind estimation algorithm for synchronous CDMA (S-CDMA) systems to estimate the multiuser channels. However, this algorithm cannot be directly applied to an asynchronous CDMA (A-CDMA) system. In this paper, we study a similar blind estimation scheme that provides estimates of the multiuser channels by exploiting the structure information of the data output and the users' delays. In particular, we show that the subspace of the data matrix contains sufficient information for unique determination of channels and, hence, the signature waveforms. By utilizing antenna arrays, we extended our approach to overloaded systems, where the number of users may exceed the spreading factor