A bootstrap-based RAKE receiver for CDMA systems

We consider a bootstrap-based approach to enhance the performance of RAKE receivers in multi-user CDMA systems over a multipath frequency selective slowly fading channel. A training based strategy is proposed to identify a low order channel. In this approach we use an FIR filter model with unknown length, estimating the model directly with low complexity in the time domain. Based on the estimates, bootstrap-based multiple hypothesis tests are applied to identify the non-zero coefficients of the FIR filter; in other words low order estimates of the channel. Simulation results demonstrate the power of using this technique in RAKE receivers in unknown noise environments.