Analysis of received-level detection accuracy in DS-CDMA systems

Cellular mobile communications require the detection of received levels at mobile stations so that the positions of the mobile stations can be detected. Given that paths can be isolated in the broadband DS-CDMA method, the technique generally used is RAKE reception, and improvements in detection accuracy due to the path diversity effect can be expected. This paper discusses the application to the DS-CDMA technique of a method in which the average reception power is estimated from N reception levels (the true value) obtained by sampling at a certain time interval AT in a mobile communication environment in which the reception voltage changes dynamically as the mobile unit runs. First, we perform a theoretical analysis of the detection accuracy of the received level in a general reception model that simultaneously takes both antenna diversity and path diversity into consideration, and then we demonstrate the plausibility of the theoretical analysis by means of computer simulations. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.