Comparison of low complexity algorithms for MSNR beamforming

We investigate eigen-beamforming resulting from the maximum signal to noise ratio (MSNR) criterion. MSNR beamforming criterion leads to a simple eigenvalue problem (SE) so that the weight vector is the principal eigenvector of the covariance matrix of the desired signal. We employ a beamformer-RAKE receiver at the uplink of a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system. The receiver exploits the MSNR based beamforming for spatial processing. There are different algorithms like the power method, the Lagrange multiplier method and the conjugate gradient method to solve the SE. We compare these three algorithms in terms of computational complexity and bit error rate (BER) performance in multipath propagation environment.