Pilot signal cancellation for an IS-95 downlink SIC receiver

During the last several years, numerous multiuser detectors have been proposed for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. The successive interference canceler (SIC) is one such detector that is relatively simple to implement. The basic principle behind the SIC is that a weaker user can be detected with improved performance when stronger users are successively detected, reconstructed, and canceled from the received signal. In this paper, we seek to increase the detection accuracy of the SIC for all users by performing pilot signal cancellation using a parallel interference canceler (PIC). This PIC is incorporated in the initial stage of the SIC, resulting in a hybrid interference canceler (HIC) architecture. Because the pilot signal data are known, the pilot signal can be accurately reconstructed for a wide range of channel conditions. Computer simulations are presented to demonstrate the advantages of the HIC architecture compared to a conventional SIC receiver.