Two approaches to multiuser detection over fading channels

In this paper, two different receiver structures to multiuser detection that are appropriate for the code-division multiple-access systems with antenna arrays in fading channels are investigated and compared. We analyze and compare the performance of the two different multiuser detection structures for uplink or downlink channels. The number of elements of receiving antenna array may be limited in the downlink channel due to the small size of receivers. We assume a synchronous system, but it can be easily extended to an asynchronous system. The first approach is based on the distributed decorrelator where the signal decorrelation is performed by each receiving antenna element independently and decorrelated outputs are combined according to the maximum ratio. The second approach is the central decorrelator where the signal decorrelation is performed once collectively on the outputs from all elements of receiving antenna array. Both decorrelators provide the same performance in the additive white Gaussian noise channels. The distributed decorrelator provides the better performance in flat fading channels. We employ the decorrelator to demonstrate our results. The results discussed in the present paper can be extended to other configurations such as the blind adaptive space-time multiuser detection