The optimum received signal-power distribution for CDMA packet communication systems employing successive interference cancellation

In CDMA packet communication systems employing the successive interference cancellation (SIC) scheme, the suppression of MAI depends on the received signal-power distribution, in addition to the cross-correlation characteristics of the spreading sequences and the number of transmitted packets. Some work has been done about discovering the received signal-power distribution which makes MAI be suppressed effectively. This distribution minimizes the averaged bit error rate (BER). However, in packet communication systems, it is important to the performance whether packets can be transmitted successfully or not. Even if the averaged BER is high, many packets can be correctly transmitted. It implies that the optimum distribution on averaged BER does not give the best performance of packet transmission. The received signal-power distribution which gives the best performance of packet transmission is derived. Such a distribution makes clear the limit of performance improvement using SIC.