Iterative multiuser detection

Communication channels that involve both error-control coding and multiple-access signaling are of increasing interest in applications such as cellular telephony, wireless computer networks, and broadband local access. Optimal data detection and decoding in such channels generally require a level of computational complexity that is prohibitive for these types of applications. Turbo multiuser detection (MUD) addresses this problem by applying turbo principle of iteration among constituent decision algorithms, with intermediate exchanges of soft information about tentative decisions. This principle is applied in this paper by considering MUD and error-control decoding as the two constituent decision algorithms. The resulting iteration between soft MUD and soft channel decoding yields good results. This article reviews this area outlining both the basic principles involved and the basis for low-complexity turbo multiuser detectors that require minimal increased complexity over that of the standard channel decoder.