Code-timing synchronization in DS-CDMA systems using space-time diversity

The synchronization of a desired user transmitting a known training sequence in a direct-sequence (DS) asynchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) sys-tem is addressed. It is assumed that the receiver consists of an arbitrary antenna array and works in a near-far, frequency-nonselective, slowly fading channel. The estimator that we propose is derived by applying the maximum likelihood (ML) principle to a signal model in which the contribution of all the interfering compo-nents (e.g., multiple-access interference, external interference and noise) is modeled as a Gaussian term with an unknown and arbitrary space-time correlation matrix. The main contribution of this paper is the fact that the estimator makes eÆcient use of the structure of the signals in both the space and time domains. Its perfor-mance is compared with the Cramer-Rao Bound, and with the performance of other methods proposed recently that also employ an antenna array but only exploit the structure of the signals in one of the two domains, while using the other simply as a means of path diversity. It is shown that the use of the temporal and spatial structures is necessary to achieve synchronization in heavily loaded systems or in the presence of directional external interference.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Beamforming and Multiuser Detection in CDMA Systems with External Interferences

Multiuser detection has been investigated to mitigate the near-far effect in CDMA systems. Antenna arrays have been shown to provide spatial diversity and cancel undesired signals. In this paper we consider the synergy of both multiuser detection and antenna arrays for the base station of a CDMA system. The receiver we proposed consists of the known multiuser decorrelator, which cancels multiple-access interferences followed by a beamformer for each user, which cancels the external interferences. This receiver adds an extra branch to the decorrelator. This additional branch, corresponding to a fictitious user with an unused code and zero power, allows to estimate the external interference signal subspace and compute a suitable beamforming weight-vector that cancels the external interferences. The receiver is also extended to the asynchronous case and all of this without any training signal or any a priori spatial information.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Asynchronous CDMA Systems with Random Spreading-Part I: Fundamental Limits

Spectral efficiency for asynchronous code division multiple access (CDMA) with random spreading is calculated in the large system limit allowing for arbitrary chip waveforms and frequency-flat fading. Signal to interference and noise ratios (SINRs) for suboptimal receivers, such as the linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) detectors, are derived. The approach is general and optionally allows even for statistics obtained by under-sampling the received signal. All performance measures are given as a function of the chip waveform and the delay distribution of the users in the large system limit. It turns out that synchronizing users on a chip level impairs performance for all chip waveforms with bandwidth greater than the Nyquist bandwidth, e.g., positive roll-off factors. For example, with the pulse shaping demanded in the UMTS standard, user synchronization reduces spectral efficiency up to 12% at 10 dB normalized signal-to-noise ratio. The benefits of asynchronism stem from the finding that the excess bandwidth of chip waveforms actually spans additional dimensions in signal space, if the users are de-synchronized on the chip-level. The analysis of linear MMSE detectors shows that the limiting interference effects can be decoupled both in the user domain and in the frequency domain such that the concept of the effective interference spectral density arises. This generalizes and refines Tse and Hanly's concept of effective interference. In Part II, the analysis is extended to any linear detector that admits a representation as multistage detector and guidelines for the design of low complexity multistage detectors with universal weights are provided

Improving NOMA Multi-Carrier Systems with Intentional Frequency Offsets

In this letter, we investigate the possible benefits of asynchrony in the frequency domain for the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes. Despite the common perspective that asynchrony in transmission or reception of multi-stream signals is harmful, we demonstrate the advantages of adding intentional frequency offset to the conventional power domain-NOMA (P-NOMA). We introduce two methods which add artificial frequency offsets between different sets of sub-carriers destined for different users. The first one uses the same successive interference cancellation (SIC) method as the conventional P-NOMA except that it enjoys reduced inter-user interference (IUI) between interfering sub-carriers. The second scheme adopts a precoding at the base station and a linear preprocessing scheme at the receiving user. It decomposes the broadcast channel into parallel channels circumventing the need for SIC. As a result, it fully exploits the advantages provided by the frequency asynchrony and enables the interference-free transmission to the users. The numerical results show that both methods can outperform the conventional P-NOMA

Performance of Fractionally Spread Multicarrier CDMA in AWGN as Well as Slow and Fast Nakagami-m Fading Channels

Abstract—In multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MCCDMA), the total system bandwidth is divided into a number of subbands, where each subband may use direct-sequence (DS) spreading and each subband signal is transmitted using a subcarrier frequency. In this paper, we divide the symbol duration into a number of fractional subsymbol durations also referred to here as fractions, in a manner analogous to subbands in MC-CDMA systems. In the proposed MC-CDMA scheme, the data streams are spread at both the symbol-fraction level and at the chip level by the transmitter, and hence the proposed scheme is referred to as the fractionally spread MC-CDMA arrangement, or FS MCCDMA. Furthermore, the FS MC-CDMA signal is additionally spread in the frequency (F)-domain using a spreading code with the aid of a number of subcarriers. In comparison to conventional MC-CDMA schemes, which are suitable for communications over frequency-selective fading channels, our study demonstrates that the proposed FS MC-CDMA is capable of efficiently exploiting both the frequency-selective and the time-selective characteristics of wireless channels. Index Terms—Broadband communications, code-division multiple access (CDMA), fractionally spreading, frequency-domain spreading, multicarrier modulation, Nakagami fading, timedomain spreading

Performance of direct-oversampling correlator-type receivers in chaos-based DS-CDMA systems over frequency non-selective fading channels

In this paper, we present a study on the performance of direct-oversampling correlator-type receivers in chaos-based direct-sequence code division multiple access systems over frequency non-selective fading channels. At the input, the received signal is sampled at a sampling rate higher than the chip rate. This oversampling step is used to precisely determine the delayed-signal components from multipath fading channels, which can be combined together by a correlator for the sake of increasing the SNR at its output. The main advantage of using direct-oversampling correlator-type receivers is not only their low energy consumption due to their simple structure, but also their ability to exploit the non-selective fading characteristic of multipath channels to improve the overall system performance in scenarios with limited data speeds and low energy requirements, such as low-rate wireless personal area networks. Mathematical models in discrete-time domain for the conventional transmitting side with multiple access operation, the generalized non-selective Rayleigh fading channel, and the proposed receiver are provided and described. A rough theoretical bit-error-rate (BER) expression is first derived by means of Gaussian approximation. We then define the main component in the expression and build its probability mass function through numerical computation. The final BER estimation is carried out by integrating the rough expression over possible discrete values of the PFM. In order to validate our findings, PC simulation is performed and simulated performance is compared with the corresponding estimated one. Obtained results show that the system performance get better with the increment of the number of paths in the channel.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Blind user detection in doubly-dispersive DS/CDMA channels

In this work, we consider the problem of detecting the presence of a new user in a direct-sequence/code-division-multiple-access (DS/CDMA) system with a doubly-dispersive fading channel, and we propose a novel blind detection strategy which only requires knowledge of the spreading code of the user to be detected, but no prior information as to the time-varying channel impulse response and the structure of the multiaccess interference. The proposed detector has a bounded constant false alarm rate (CFAR) under the design assumptions, while providing satisfactory detection performance even in the presence of strong cochannel interference and high user mobility.Comment: Accepted for publication on IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Adaptive detection for a differential chaos-based multiple access system on unknown multipath fading channels

This paper addresses the problem of bit detection for a chaos-based multiple-access system. In particular, one considers the Differential Chaos Shift Keying modulation. It is assumed that the transmission channels are frequency-selective. Moreover, the channel coefficients and the channel delays are unknown to the receiver. It is only assumed that vague estimates of the minimum and maximum channel delays are available for the user of interest. In this context, the detection is achieved using a training sequence from which an LMS detector is derived. The theoretical performance results are compared to those of the optimal detector for which all channel characteristics are known. Simulation results are given, which confirm the theoretical study

Blind multiuser adaptive combining for asynchronous cdma systems

This paper presents a novel technique to globally estimate and track the direction of arrival (DOA) of different users in an asynchronous CDMA system. The estimates are obtained exploiting the temporal structure of CDMA signals. No training signal nor a priori spatial information is required. The necessary information is extracted directly from the received signals. The proper combining of the overall information present at the receiver after the despreading, jointly with an Eigenvalue Decomposition (EVD), let as estimate the generalized steering vector for each user. Furthermore, a direct iteration method is introduced in our scheme in order to make the array robust to channel variations and to reduce the computational load of the EVD required for each user.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version