Optimal array combiner and sequence detector in mobile radio channels

The use of spatial diversity at the receiver front-end together with a sequence detector implies a joint design problem of the spatial combiner and the sequence detector impulse response. This joint design is usually faced under the constraint that the impulse response of the sequence detector is matched to the channel and combiner response. This procedure maximizes the signal to noise ratio at the input of the detector but, as it is well known, this does not guarantee a minimum probability of error, which is more related to the so-called effective signal to noise ratio. This work presents a procedure that, starting from a simple structure for the space-time receiver aims directly at the maximization of the effective signal to noise ratio, yet preserving all the features of the spatial processor in terms of co-channel and high order intersymbol interference rejection.