Performance of DS-CDMA systems with antenna arrays in non-uniform propagation environments

Abstract

The bit error rate (BER) of a direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) cellular system incorporating antenna arrays for spatial filtering is determined when operated in an environment where the propagation characteristics are a function of the direction of arrival (DOA) of signals. Specifically this paper analyses the performance of the system in an environment where the multipath signals on each of the diversity branches of a RAKE receiver have varying fading characteristics. This scenario would typically describe urban environments where a large number of multipath echoes are present, each with different fading statistics resulting from the non-homogeneous propagation paths seen by each multipath echo.