Randomly Spread CDMA: Asymptotics via Statistical Physics

This paper studies randomly spread code-division multiple access (CDMA) and multiuser detection in the large-system limit using the replica method developed in statistical physics. Arbitrary input distributions and flat fading are considered. A generic multiuser detector in the form of the posterior mean estimator is applied before single-user decoding. The generic detector can be particularized to the matched filter, decorrelator, linear MMSE detector, the jointly or the individually optimal detector, and others. It is found that the detection output for each user, although in general asymptotically non-Gaussian conditioned on the transmitted symbol, converges as the number of users go to infinity to a deterministic function of a "hidden" Gaussian statistic independent of the interferers. Thus the multiuser channel can be decoupled: Each user experiences an equivalent single-user Gaussian channel, whose signal-to-noise ratio suffers a degradation due to the multiple-access interference. The uncoded error performance (e.g., symbol-error-rate) and the mutual information can then be fully characterized using the degradation factor, also known as the multiuser efficiency, which can be obtained by solving a pair of coupled fixed-point equations identified in this paper. Based on a general linear vector channel model, the results are also applicable to MIMO channels such as in multiantenna systems.Comment: To be published in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

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

A Survey on Wireless Security: Technical Challenges, Recent Advances and Future Trends

This paper examines the security vulnerabilities and threats imposed by the inherent open nature of wireless communications and to devise efficient defense mechanisms for improving the wireless network security. We first summarize the security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and availability issues. Next, a comprehensive overview of security attacks encountered in wireless networks is presented in view of the network protocol architecture, where the potential security threats are discussed at each protocol layer. We also provide a survey of the existing security protocols and algorithms that are adopted in the existing wireless network standards, such as the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and the long-term evolution (LTE) systems. Then, we discuss the state-of-the-art in physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer. We also introduce the family of various jamming attacks and their counter-measures, including the constant jammer, intermittent jammer, reactive jammer, adaptive jammer and intelligent jammer. Additionally, we discuss the integration of physical-layer security into existing authentication and cryptography mechanisms for further securing wireless networks. Finally, some technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends in wireless security are discussed.Comment: 36 pages. Accepted to Appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, 201