Estimation of numbers of multipaths in DS-CDMA by the MDL principle

In DS-CDMA systems the optimal maximum likelihood and some sub-optimal multiuser receivers require that the delays of all active users are known. This means that the numbers of multipaths also have to be known. In this paper it is discussed how the numbers of multipaths, can be estimated by the minimum description length (MDL) principle. The suggested method gives estimates for both the numbers of multipaths and delays. Simulation results are provided to give a brief idea of the method's performance. Some alternative MDL based procedures are also suggested.