Sensitivity analysis of linear DS-CDMA detectors to propagation delay estimation errors

Abstract

An asynchronous direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) communication system operating over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel is considered. In many applications, the near-far problem can be the limiting factor. Several near-far resistant receivers have therefore been proposed (e.g., the decorrelating receiver). These receivers assume perfect knowledge of the propagation delay from all users to the receiver. In practice, the delays are estimated and therefore subject to estimation errors. The performance penalty these errors impose on linear detectors, especially the decorrelating detector, is evaluated.