MIMO-assisted space-code-division multiple-access: linear detectors and performance over multipath fading channels

In this contribution, we propose and investigate a multiple-input-multiple-output space-division, code-division multiple-access (MIMO SCDMA) scheme. The main objective is to improve the capacity of the existing direct-sequence (DS)-CDMA systems, for example, for supporting an increased number of users, by deploying multiple transmit and receive antennas in the corresponding systems and by using some advanced transmission and detection algorithms. In the proposed MIMO SCDMA system, each user can be distinguished jointly by its spreading code signature and its unique channel impulse response (CIR) transfer function referred to as spatial signature. Hence, the number of users might be supported by the MIMO SCDMA system and the corresponding achievable performance are determined by the degrees of freedom provided by both the code signatures and the spatial signatures, as well as by how efficiently the degrees of freedom are exploited. Specifically, the number of users supported by the proposed MIMO SCDMA can be significantly higher than the number of chips per bit, owing to the employment of space-division. In this contribution, space-time spreading is employed for configuring the transmitted signals. Three types of low-complexity linear detectors, namely, correlation, decorrelating, and minimum mean-square error (MMSE) are considered for detecting the MIMO SCDMA signals. The bit-error rate performance of the MIMO SCDMA system associated with these linear detectors are evaluated by simulations, when assuming that the MIMO SCDMA signals are transmitted over multipath Rayleigh-fading channels. Our study and simulation results show that MIMO SCDMA assisted by multiuser detection is capable of facilitating joint space-time despreading, multipath combining, and receiver diversity combining, while simultaneously suppressing the multiuser interfering signals.