Performance of Multiuser Detection in Multirate CDMA Systems

Multiuser detectors for asynchronous multirate code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems are considered. A multirate CDMA system model able to fit several system concepts in the same framework is presented. The performance of the multi-code (MC) system with one processing gain and the multiple processing gain (MPG) system is compared. Upper bounds for the expected value of the asymptotic multiuser efficiency of the decorrelating detector for a synchronous multirate CDMA system with three effective users are derived for a system with one and two processing gains. The numerical results show that the performance of the decorrelating detector for MC and MPG systems do not differ significantly. The bit error rates (BER) of the decorrelating, parallel interference canceler (PIC) and groupwise serial interference canceler (GSIC) with either PIC or decorrelator within the group are compared. The results show that the decorrelating and the GSIC detectors yield the best performance. For all interference cancellation schemes the BER saturates at high SNRs due to decision errors degrading the multiple-access interference (MAI) estimates.