Iterative equalization using improved block DFE for synchronous CDMA systems

Iterative equalization using optimal multiuser detector and trellis-based channel decoder in coded CDMA systems improves the bit error rate (BER) performance dramatically. However, given large number of users employed in the system over multipath channels causing significant multiple-access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI), the optimal multiuser detector is thus prohibitively complex. Therefore, the sub-optimal detectors such as low-complexity linear and non-linear equalizers have to be considered. In this paper, a novel low-complexity block decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is proposed for the synchronous CDMA system. Based on the conventional block DFE, the new method is developed by computing the reliable extrinsic log-likelihood ratio (LLR) using two consecutive received samples rather than one received sample in the literature. At each iteration, the estimated symbols by the equalizer is then saved as a priori information for next iteration. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed low-complexity block DFE algorithm offers very good performance gain over the conventional block DFE.