A Semi-Analytical Method for Predicting the Performance and Convergence Behavior of a Multiuser Turbo-Equalizer/Demapper

This paper proposes a simple semi-analytical method with reduced simulation time for predicting at any iteration the performance of a turbo-equalization/demapping scheme using the Wang and Poor soft-in/soft-out (SISO) minimum mean-square error (MMSE)/interference cancellation (IC) equalizer and a SISO decoder. The proposed method may be applied to multilevel/phase data modulations as well as multiuser context. This paper shows that the equalizer behavior may be very reliably predicted totally by calculations (no simulations are needed) whereas that of the decoder still requires simulations. A comparison between the proposed prediction method and plain simulations of the overall turbo equalization scheme demonstrates that our method accurately determines the system performance at any iteration. Static channels, long frames, and perfect channel knowledge are assumed throughout the paper