A discrete multi carrier multiple access technique for wireless communications

A discrete multi carrier multiple access (MCMA) technique is proposed for multi user wireless communications. An interleaved set of subcarriers is dedicated to each user to provide with a high order of frequency diversity. A reduced complexity digital implementation of the technique is discussed. Both inter-symbol interference and other-user interference are mitigated using a proper cyclic extension, provided that the relative propagation delays of the users are an integer multiple of a symbol period. The effect of other-user interference due to non-integer propagation delays is investigated using computer simulations. The bit error rate performance is presented for an example system over both an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and a frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. The amount of other-user interference is shown to be reduced increasing the number of subcarriers per user