Simplified Multiaccess Interference Reduction for MC-CDMA With Carrier Frequency Offsets

Multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) system performance can severely be degraded by multiaccess interference (MAI) due to the carrier frequency offset (CFO). We argue that MAI can more easily be reduced by employing complex carrier interferometry (CI) codes. We consider the scenario with spread gain N, multipath length L, and N users, i.e., a fully loaded system. It is proved that, when CI codes are used, each user only needs to combat 2(L - 1) (rather than N - 1) interferers, even in the presence of CFO. It is shown that this property of MC-CDMA with CI codes in a CFO channel can be exploited to simplify three multiuser detectors, namely, parallel interference cancellation (PIC), maximum-likelihood, and decorrelating multiuser detectors. The bit-error probability (BEP) for MC-CDMA with binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation and single-stage PIC and an upper bound for the minimum error probability are derived. Finally, simulation results are given to corroborate theoretical results.