Differential and coherent decorrelating multiuser receivers for space-time-coded CDMA systems

Recently, we proposed a differential space-code modulation (DSCM) scheme that integrates the strength of differential space-time coding and spreading to achieve interference suppression and resistance to time-varying channel fading in single-user environments. In this paper, we consider the problem of multiuser receiver design for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems that utilize DSCM for transmission. In particular, we propose two differential receivers for such systems. These differential receivers do not require the channel state information (CSI) for detection and, still, are resistant to multiuser interference (MUI) and time-varying channel fading. We also propose a coherent receiver that requires only the CSI of the desired user for detection. The coherent receiver yields improved performance over the differential receivers when reliable channel estimates are available (e.g., in slowly fading channels). The proposed differential/coherent receivers are decorrelative schemes that decouple the detection of different users. Both long and short spreading codes can be employed in these schemes. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed receivers.