Blind equalization in antenna array CDMA systems

Multipath induced interchip-interference (ICI) alters waveforms of transmitted signals and presents a major obstacle to direct-sequence (DS) code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) communications. For systems with aperiodic pseudorandom (PN) spreading sequences, the primary way to counter fading is through employing RAKE receivers that enhance the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) by combining multipath signals from the desired user. In this paper, we formulate a discrete-time model for antenna array CDMA systems and study the 2-D RAKE receiver problem by casting it into an optimum vector FIR equalizer design and estimation framework. A novel aspect of the present work is the full exploitation of the potential of 2-D RAKE receivers without requiring any detailed knowledge of the multipath channels.