MULTIUSER DETECTORS FOR SYNCHRONOUS CDMA COMMUNICATION OVER NONSELECTIVE RICIAN FADING CHANNELS

Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) data transmission over a non-selective Rician fading channel is considered, where the faded signal components arrive at the receiver in synchronism with the specular signal component. Under the assumption that the fading parameters are uncorrelated, this fading CDMA channel is shown to be equivalent to a Gaussian CDMA channel over which a modified signal set is employed. A fading counterpart of the multiuser asymptotic efficiency performance measure is defined. The asymptotic efficiencies of the optimum, decorrelating, and conventional detectors designed for the fading channel are derived. The conventional detector, which has low complexity, is shown to degrade rapidly in near-far environments. The optimal detector for the fading channel exhibits a significant improvement in performance but at the price of a computational complexity that increases exponentially with the number of users. The linear decorrelating detector for the fading case is optimally near-far resistant. The asymptotic efficiencies of multiuser detectors designed for the Gaussian channel when employed over the Rician fading channel are also obtained, thereby quantifying the loss in performance incurred by these mismatched detectors.