Noncoherent multiuser detection for CDMA systems with nonlinear modulation: a non-Bayesian approach

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of multiuser detection for a system in which each user employs nonlinear modulation, with an emphasis on noncoherent detection techniques which do not require knowledge of the users' channel parameters at the receiver. Our goals are to gain fundamental insight into the capabilities of multiuser detection in such a setting, and to provide practical algorithms that perform better than conventional matched-filter reception. We begin by providing fundamental performance benchmarks by considering coherent maximum-likelihood (ML) detection, which requires knowledge of the users' channel parameters, as well as noncoherent detection, formulated in a non-Bayesian generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) framework. The asymptotic performance of each detector, as the noise level vanishes, is characterized, yielding simple geometric criteria for near-far resistance. In general, both the ML and GLRT detectors have complexity which is exponential in the number of users. We, therefore, propose the more practical sequential decision projection (SDP) detector which has complexity which is quadratic in the number of users. It is shown that the SDP detector has nonzero asymptotic efficiency if the users' powers are suitably disparate.