Performance of MC-CDM Systems With MMSEC Over Rayleigh Fading Channels

In this paper, we investigate the performance of multicarrier code-division multiplexing (MC-CDM) systems with minimum mean square error combining (MMSEC) over a Rayleigh fading channel. An approximated expression on the symbol error rate (SER) for MMSEC is derived. The approximated expression provides an accurate approximation of the true SER, particularly for systems with higher modulation and a small spreading factor. Through the derived error performances, we also calculate the achievable diversity order. MC-CDM systems with MMSEC achieve the same asymptotical diversity order of 1, regardless of the spreading factor. Within practical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges, the effective diversity order is further increased as a larger spreading factor is used. The derived analytical expressions are verified by numerical and simulation results.