Multiuser MIMO-OFDM systems using subcarrier hopping

Abstract

Recently space division multiple access (SDMA) assisted multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems invoking multiuser detection (MUD) techniques have attracted substantial research interest, which is capable of exploiting both transmitter multiplexing gain and receiver diversity gain. A new scheme referred to here as slowsubcarrierhopping (SSCH) assisted multiuser SDMA-OFDM, is proposed. It is shown that, with the aid of the so-called uniform SSCH (USSCH) pattern, the multiuser interference (MUI) experienced by the high-throughput SDMA-OFDM system can be effectively suppressed, resulting in a significant performance improvement. In the investigations conducted, the proposed USSCH-aided SDMA-OFDM system was capable of outperforming a range of SDMA-OFDM systems considered, including the conventional SDMA-OFDM system dispensing with the employment of frequency-hopping techniques. For example, at an Eb/N0 value of 12 dB, the proposed USSCH/SDMA-OFDM system reduced the bit error ratio (BER) by about three orders of magnitude, in comparison to the conventional SDMA-OFDM system, while maintaining a similar computational complexity.