Robust detection in DS-CDMA

Robust single-user detection is employed in a direct sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system in which the noise process contains impulsive components. The breakdown point is computed for a mixture noise model. The bit error probability expressions are derived under a Gaussian mixture. The performance is also evaluated in the presence of power imbalance and asynchronous reception. Noise, rather than interference, is shown to be the primary obstacle in achieving good performance for certain practical signal power and user load levels. It is concluded that DS-CDMA employing a robust correlator receiver performs better than the conventional matched filter in an impulsive noise environment.