Performance of space-time spreading in multiuser DS-CDMA systems over fast-fading channels

In this paper we investigate the multiuser performance of a space-time spreading scheme that uses space-time block codes (STBCs) to enhance the received signal quality by utilizing the spatial and temporal diversities at the receiver side. We study the performance of the transmit diversity scheme introduced in the literature for a DS-CDMA system using orthogonal and nonorthogonal spreading codes over Rayleigh fast-fading channel with two antennas at the transmitter and one in the receiver side. For the single user case, and using orthogonal spreading codes, we develop the performance analysis for the underlying transmit diversity scheme over fast-fading channels. We prove that using such a space-time spreading scheme can achieve a twofold of the diversity order obtained using existing space-time spreading schemes. To examine the effect of signal interference on the receiver performance, we consider the case of nonorthogonal codes where we employ a linear minimum-mean square-error (MMSE) multiuser detector as a suboptimum linear detector. The performance of the multiuser system is examined for a moderate number of users where we show that the diversity order is still maintained and only a SNR loss is incurred due to the residual interference. Finally, we compare the performance of the MMSE multiuser detector to a simple adaptive MMSE combining scheme.