Improved decoder metrics for DS-CDMA in practical 3G systems

While 4G mobile networks have been deployed since 2008. In several of the more developed markets, 3G mobile networks are still growing with 3G having the largest market -in terms of number of users- by 2019. 3G networks are based on Direct- Sequence Code-Division Multiple-Access (DS-CDMA). DS-CDMA suffers mainly from the Multiple Access Interference (MAI) and fading. Multi-User Detectors (MUDs) and Error Correcting Codes (ECCs) are the primary means to combat MAI and fading. MUDs, however, suffer from high complexity, including most of sub-optimal algorithms. Hence, most commercial implementations still use conventional single-user matched filter detectors. This thesis proposes improved channel decoder metrics for enhancing uplink performance in 3G systems. The basic idea is to model the MAI as conditionally Gaussian, instead of Gaussian, conditioned on the users’ cross-correlations and/or the channel fading coefficients. The conditioning implies a time-dependent variance that provides enhanced reliability estimates at the decoder inputs. We derive improved log-likelihood ratios (ILLRs) for bit- and chip- asynchronous multipath fading channels. We show that while utilizing knowledge of all users’ code sequences for the ILLR metric is very complicated in chip-asynchronous reception, a simplified expression relying on truncated group delay results in negligible performance loss. We also derive an expression for the error probability using the standard Gaussian approximation for asynchronous channels for the widely used raised cosine pule shaping. Our study framework considers practical 3G systems, with finite interleaving, correlated multipath fading channel models, practical pulse shaping, and system parameters obtained from CDMA2000 standard. Our results show that for the fully practical cellular uplink channel, the performance advantage due to ILLRs is significant and approaches 3 dB

Proceedings of the Mobile Satellite Conference

A satellite-based mobile communications system provides voice and data communications to mobile users over a vast geographic area. The technical and service characteristics of mobile satellite systems (MSSs) are presented and form an in-depth view of the current MSS status at the system and subsystem levels. Major emphasis is placed on developments, current and future, in the following critical MSS technology areas: vehicle antennas, networking, modulation and coding, speech compression, channel characterization, space segment technology and MSS experiments. Also, the mobile satellite communications needs of government agencies are addressed, as is the MSS potential to fulfill them

BER-Optimized Linear Parallel Interference Cancellers for Multicarrier DS-CDMA Systems

Abstract — In this paper, we consider the design and bit error performance analysis of linear parallel interference cancellers (LPIC) for multicarrier (MC) DS-CDMA systems. We propose an LPIC scheme where we estimate (and cancel) the multiple access interference (MAI) based on the soft decision outputs on individual subcarriers, and the interference cancelled outputs on different subcarriers are combined to form the final decision statistic. We scale the MAI estimate on individual subcarriers by a weight before cancellation. In order to choose these weights optimally, we derive exact closed-form expressions for the bit error rate (BER) at the output of different stages of the LPIC, which we minimize to obtain the optimum weights for the different stages. We show that the proposed BER-optimized weighted LPIC scheme performs better than the MF detector and the conventional LPIC scheme (where the weights are taken to be unity), and close to the decorrelating detector. Keywords – Linear PIC, multicarrier DS-CDMA, optimum weights I