Can quantization improve error performance in CDMA?

Abstract A K-user direct-sequence spread-spectrum code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system with (q log2 K)-bit baseband signal quantization at the demodulator is considered. It is shown that additionally quantizing the K + 1 level output signal of the CDMA modulator into q bits improves significantly the average bit-error performance in a non-negligible regime of noise variance, σ 2, and user load, β, under various system settings, like additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), Rayleigh fading, single-user detection, multi-user detection, random and orthogonal spreading codes. For the case of single-user detection in random spreading AWGN-CDMA, this regime is identified explicitly as