Performance analysis of decorrelating detector on diversity channels with imperfect channel estimates

In this paper, we present a performance analysis of the bit error performance of detectors in multiuser systems, considering diversity reception with imperfect channel estimation. The detectors we consider are the decorrelating (DC) detector and the conventional matched filter (MF) detector. We consider a pilot-based channel estimation scheme in flat as well as diversity fading channels, and analytically quantify the degradation in the bit error performance of the DC and the MF detectors due to imperfect channel estimates. We show that, while imperfect channel estimates degrade performance compared to perfect channel estimates, the degradation in the bit error performance can be compensated by using a larger number of receive antennas.