Decorrelating detectors for quasi-synchronous CDMA

Abstract

To date, two forms of spread spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) have been considered in the literature. Either synchronous CDMA, where all users are both chip and bit synchronized relative to each other, or asynchronous CDMA, where all users are neither chip nor bit synchronized relative to each other. Between these two extremes lies quasi-synchronous CDMA (QS-CDMA) where users are not chip synchronized but are approximately bit synchronized. Quasi-synchronous CDMA arises in microcell systems where the combined propagation time and delay spread produces a variation in the round trip delay time limited to a few chips.

Detection of QS-CDMA at the base station is considered. It is shown that memoryless detection can be achieved by appending blank chips to the user's spreading codes.

Two decorrelating detectors are proposed and analyzed. The first uses a matched filter bank to produce a discrete time signal, and the second uses a single oversampling integrate-and-dump filter to produce a discrete time signal. For the first detector, each matched filter is synchronized to its respective user, and for the second detector, the integrate-and-dump filter is synchronized to the base station transmissions. The performance of the two detectors is shown to be approximately equal provided the integrate-and-dump filter is sampled at least two times the chip rate.