Blind soft-detection assisted frequency-hopping multicarrier DS-CDMA systems

A slow frequency hopping, multicarrier direct-sequence, code-division multiple-access (SFH/MC DS-CDMA) scheme is proposed and investigated, which has the potential of providing a joint framework for and-generation narrow-band CDMA, 3rd-generation wideband CDMA and high-rate broadband access networks. Blind soft-detection of the SFH/MC DS-CDMA signals is investigated, assuming that the receiver has no knowledge of the associated frequency-hopping (FH) patterns invoked. The system's performance is evaluated over the range of Nakagami multipath fading channels. The results show that the blind soft-detection not only achieves the required bit error rate performance, but it is also capable of blindly acquiring the FH patterns employed. This assists the mobile in accessing the network without the knowledge of the FH patterns or during soft hand-over.