The MUOS base station RAKE receiver

The mobile user objective system (MUOS) uses WCDMA as a basis for its waveform definition. MUOS is, however, a geo-satellite system which in certain ways is a vastly different communications environment than the terrestrial cellular environment. The demand to maximize capacity has resulted in a 7 dB reduction of pilot power (relative to terrestrial WCDMA), and in very tight receiver performance requirements. These challenges are offset by much longer channel coherence times of the UHF channel. This paper shall overview key challenges and solutions in the MUOS base station RAKE receiver.