Performance analysis of linear multisensor multiuser receivers for CDMA in fading channels

Bit-error probability (BEP) analysis for linear multiuser receivers with multiple sensors in frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels is presented. The analysis is applied to evaluate the BEP in antenna diversity reception and in a cellular CDMA system. Diversity and multiuser receivers are compared based on the examples. It is observed that adding new diversity antenna elements improves performance even if the correlation between the antenna elements is relatively large (up to 0.7). However, the large correlation values pose a significant reduction in the diversity gain in comparison to the zero correlation. It is also seen that the macroscopic diversity improves the performance of receivers significantly in cellular CDMA networks. When comparing diversity and multiuser receivers it is concluded that multiuser receivers are necessary to provide low BEPs. It is also highly beneficial to have at least two diversity antennas available, in particular, if there is no multipath diversity provided by the channel. The results also show that the reduction of intercell multiple-access interference yields a significant performance advantage in cellular networks. It is also demonstrated that the combination of spatial diversity and a multiuser receiver provides a significant receiver performance or system capacity gain in comparison to implementing only one of them.