Partial interference subspace rejection in CDMA systems

Previously presented interference subspace rejection (ISR) proposed a family of new efficient multiuser detectors for CDMA. We reconsider in this paper the modes of ISR using decision feedback (DF). DF modes share similarities with parallel interference cancellation (PIC) but attempt to cancel interference by nulling rather than subtraction. However like the PIC they are prone to wrong tentative decisions. We propose a modification to DF modes that performs partial ISR instead of complete interference cancellation. When tentative decisions are correct, interference is therefore not perfectly rejected anymore. This drawback is compensated by improved robustness to wrong tentative decisions. We show that in hard handoff systems, partial ISR can only provide negligible performance improvements in high loaded systems outside the region of interest due to out-sector interference. In situations where both in-sector and out-sector interferences are cancelled, as may occur in soft handoff situations, BER performance may improve by more than I dB