Asymptotic Analysis of General Multiuser Detectors in MIMO DS-CDMA Channels

We analyze decoupling structures of MIMO DS-CDMA channels with general multiuser detector front ends, using the replica method, in order to compare the space-time spreading (STS) and time spreading (TS) schemes. In the many- user limit, a MIMO DS-CDMA channel with the STS scheme is decoupled into a bank of single-user SIMO channels. On the other hand, a MIMO DS-CDMA channel with the TS scheme is decoupled into a bank of single-user MIMO channels. In view of performance, the STS scheme outperforms the TS scheme in the fast fading situation if transmit spatial correlations exist. In terms of complexity, the STS scheme does not require any space-time coding. On the other hand, the TS scheme does require space-time coding in order to achieve comparable performance to the STS scheme. The STS scheme improves the performance of communications and reduces the complexity of transmitter and receiver architectures.