On the limitation of generalized Welch-bound equality signals

This correspondence characterizes the performance limitation of the well-acclaimed generalized Welch-bound equality (WBE) signals under linear minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) detection. It is analytically proven, and experimentally verified, that when users in an overloaded but finite-size code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system are allocated such signals, the error rate of at least one user "floors" (i.e., it cannot be driven to zero even in the absence of additive noise), independently of the symbol energies. If, in addition, all users are received with equal energy, then the error rate of every user "floors".