Generalized Multicarrier CDMA: Unification and Linear Equalization

Relying on block-symbol spreading and judicious design of user codes, this paper builds on the generalized multicarrier (GMC) quasisynchronous CDMA system that is capable of multiuser interference (MUI) elimination and intersymbol interference (ISI) suppression with guaranteed symbol recovery, regardless of the wireless frequency-selective channels. GMC-CDMA affords an alldigital unifying framework, which encompasses single-carrier and several multicarrier (MC) CDMA systems. Besides the unifying framework, it is shown that GMC-CDMA offers flexibility both in full load (maximum number of users allowed by the available bandwidth) and in reduced load settings. A novel blind channel estimation algorithm is also derived. Analytical evaluation and simulations illustrate the superior error performance and flexibility of uncoded GMC-CDMA over competing MC-CDMA alternatives especially in the presence of uplink multipath channels.