Performance evaluation of MC-CDMA uplink system with diversity reception and multiuser detection

MC-CDMA has been proposed as the signaling technique for future generation broadband wireless networks, since it offers robustness to channel impairments, relatively low complexity, flexibility in bandwidth assignment and efficient spectrum use. However, the performance degradation is large in asynchronous operation for even a small number of users. Here, performance of asynchronous as well as synchronous MC-CDMA uplink system with antenna array and multiuser detection technique is studied over a Rayleigh multipath-fading channel. Effectiveness of antenna array to handle variable data rate is also briefly discussed. Based on the simulation results the performance in asynchronous uplink of the system is found to improve dramatically with the use of antenna arrays and multiuser detection techniques. The variable data rate could be handled effectively with the assistance of antenna array.