Performance analysis of conventional RAKE receivers with channel estimation for a BPSK WCDMA downlink

In this paper, we investigate the performance of conventional RAKE receivers using maximum ratio combining (MRC) for a UMTS terrestrial radio wideband code division multiple access (UTRA-WCDMA) downlink. Both perfect and non-perfect multipath slowly Rayleigh fading channel estimations are considered. Exact bit error probabilities (BER) are derived, using quadratic forms and characteristic functions, for BPSK modulation. The users may have different bit rates. Then, the mean-squared estimation error (MSEE) of the channel tap weights is computed and compared to the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB).