Joint Data Detection and Estimation of Time-Varying Multipath Rayleigh Fading Channels in Asynchronous DS-CDMA Systems with Long Spreading Sequences

Journal article, 2007

In this paper, we present a joint approach to data detection and channel estimation for the asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems employing orthogonal signaling formats and long scrambling codes. Our emphasis is placed on different channel estimation algorithms since the performance of a communication system depends largely on its ability to retrieve an accurate measurement of the underlying channel. We investigate channel estimation algorithms under different conditions. The estimated channel information is used to enable coherent data detection to combat the detrimental effect of the multiuser interference and the multipath propagation of the transmitted signal. In the considered multiuser detector, we mainly use interference cancellation techniques, which are suitable for long-code CDMA systems. Interference cancellation and channel estimation using soft estimates of the transmitted signal is also proposed in this paper. Different channel estimation schemes are evaluated and compared in terms of mean square error (MSE) of channel estimation and bit error rate (BER) performance. Based on our analysis and numerical results, some recommendations are made on how to choose appropriate channel estimators in practical systems.