Development of MMSE Macro-Diversity Receiver with Delay Difference Correction Technique

We have been developing a minimum mean square error macro-diversity (MMSE-MD) reception system using distributed remote antennas and radio-on-fiber (RoF) links for use in live broadcasts of road races. For the system to be feasible, we have to consider the propagation delay differences among diversity branches due to RoF links and radio propagation. This paper describes a hardware implementation of an MMSE-MD receiver embodying our delay difference correction (DDC) technique and indoor and outdoor performance evaluations. Our prototype receiver perfectly corrected the propagation delay difference among diversity branches in less than 11 symbols duration in a time-varying multipath fading environment, and it was capable of the MD reception without outage on an actual road race course.