ICSP2006 Proceedings

Blind multi-User detection in DS-CDMA downlink under Gaussian noise

using independent component analysis
Lei Shen, Shiju Li, Fangni Chen,Jun Wei
Dept. of ISEE, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, 310027, P. R. China
E-mail: zdleifeng@sohu.com
Abstract
For the DS-CDMA downlink, the performance of
the receiver based on traditional matched filter will be
worsen, due to multi-path interference and multiple
access interference (MAI). Applying the independent
component analysis (ICA) to blind detection of DSCDMA signals with multi-path interference, we can
get all the source signals without any information of
the transmitted users. The basic feature of ICA method
is able to estimate a set of independent source signals,
but their order is somewhat unpredictable and the
desired signal can be obtained directly. Since the
spreading sequence of the mobile phone is initially
known, this paper proposes a new method to estimate
both the source signals and the corresponding
spreading codes by ICA. The desired signal can be got
by comparing the estimated spreading sequences with
the initially known spreading sequence. The
performance of the proposed method under Gaussian
noise is also analyzed. Illustrative simulation examples
are provided at last.
.

1. Introduction
Direct sequence code division multiple access (DSCDMA) is a technique widely extended in mobile
communications. In these systems users share the same
band of frequencies and the same time lots, but they
are separated in codes. The main sources of errors at
the detector are due to the multi-access interference
(MAI), multi-path interference. The independent
component analysis (ICA), as a new method of blind
source separation, has received more attention since
1990[2],[3]. [4]-[6] apply ICA to blind multi-Users
detection of DS-CDMA signals. Without any explicit
information of interference parameters such as delay,
amplitudes, or spreading sequences, the MAI and
multi-path interference can be greatly reduced and all
the users information bits can be blindly estimated.
The basic feature of any ICA method is able to
estimate a set of independent source signals, but their
order is somewhat unpredictable. We can not get the
desired users signal directly. One method utilizes the
desired users spreading sequences to assist ICA
process. [6] uses the desired users spreading sequence
to initiate the state of fast-ICA process[7]. The RAKE-

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0-7803-9737-1/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

ICA proposed by [8] also belongs to this method. This

method needs the information of multi-path delay time
of the desired user, which is difficult to estimate.
This paper proposes an ICA to estimate both the
desired user information symbols and the
corresponding spreading sequences, in the DS-CDMA
downlink where the multi-path interference and MAI
both exist. In the downlink, the spreading sequence of
the desired user is known to the detector. The signal of
desired user can be got by comparing the estimated
spreading sequences with the known spreading
sequence.
The performance of ICA under Gaussian noise is
also analyzed, and the close expressions of the
performance are given.
In section 2 of this paper, a new data model based
on ICA is proposed, and the expression is given. In
section 3, principal component analysis (PCA) is
utilized to whiten the data under noise, and the data
vectors are also compressed. In section 4, ICA is used
to blindly estimate both the users information
symbols and the corresponding spreading sequences.
In section 5, the desired users signal can be obtained
by comparing the estimated spreading sequences with
the known spreading sequence. In section 6, the
performance of ICA under Gaussian noise is analyzed,
and the close expressions of the performance are also
given. Illustrative simulation examples are provided to
verify the proposed theory in section 7. Section 8 gives
the conclusion.

2. DS-CDMA signal model

The amplitude and delay time of multi-path DSCDMA signals are unvaried in this model. For
convenient, we suppose the carrier frequency of the
received signal is known. And the received baseband
signal can be expressed as:
N

r (t )

bkm al sk (t  mTb  dl )  n(t )

m 1k 1

(1)

l 1

Where bkm is kth user mth symbol, K is the number

of users. al and dl are the attenuation factor and delay
time of the lth transmission path, which are assumed to
be constant during the observation interval. In the
downlink, all the users have the same value of al and dl.
Sk(.) is kth users chip sequence, sk(t){-1,+1}, 1/Tb
is the bit rate, and n(t) is the Gaussian noise. The

length of all the chip sequence is C, and N is the

number of bits in the observation interval.
We collect C-length vectors rm from subsequent
discretized equispaced data samples r(nTb/C):

rm

[r (mC ), r (mC  1),..., r ((m  1)C  1)]T

Rq
(2)

Where []T means matrix transpose. From (2), we can

make 2C-length vectors qm:

[rmT , rmT1 ]T

qm

(3)

Substituting (1) and (2) into (3), gives:

K

(b

qm

k , m 1

k 1

a g
l

l 1

l 1

 bk ,m al g klF  bk ,m1 al g klL )  N m

E
kl

l 1

(4)

Where, Nm denotes 2C-length Vectors, whose

elements are modeled as AWGN with variance N0, gklE,
gklF, gklL can be expressed as:

g klE
g

F
kl

L
k

[ sk (C  dl  1)...sk (C )0...0]T

(5a)

(5b)

(5c)

[0...0 sk (1)...sk (C )0...0]

[0...0sk (1)...sk (C  d k )]

Note that the size of these vectors is 2C, and that the
vector gklF contains the original chip sequence of kth
user , padded by dl zeros in the beginning and C-dl
zeros in the end; Here dl is the discrete delay,
dl{0,..,(C-1)/2}.(4) can be represented in a compact
form as:
qm GBm  N m
(6)
From[5], (6) is a matrix form of BSS, and 2C3K
mixing matrix G contains the m-sequence code vectors
as column basis vectors. G can be expressed as:
L

G [ al g1El , al g1Fl , al g1Ll ,...,

l 1

l 1

l 1

a g , a g , a g
l

l 1

E
Kl

l 1

(7a)

F
Kl

L
Kl

,]

l 1

3K-length Vector Bm containing the symbols

transmitted by the K users can be expressed as:

Bm

[b1,m 1 , b1,m , b1,m 1 ,...bK ,m 1 , bK ,m , bK ,m 1 ]T (7b)

According to the above analysis, if the channel is

stationary during the observation interval (NTb), the
mixing matrix G is constant. From [7], we can conclude
that the rank of G=3K, and G is a column full rank
matrix. ICA can be applied to blind estimation of the
spreading sequences and the user signals. In general,
2C>3K is always found, so we utilize PCA to prewhiten and compress qm. This process will be useful
for the fast fixed-point algorithms of ICA [6].

3. The pre-whitening of observing vectors

using PCA
Assume the channel is stationary during the
observing interval time NTb. The estimation of
covariance matrix qm can be expressed as Rq[9]:

1
N

{q

T
m m

q } GGT 

m 1

N0

Os  N I




3 K u3 K

[U SU N ]

N0
I
N

U T
s
(2 C  3 K )u(2 C  3 K ) T
U N
N0

(8)

Where 2C3K matrix Us contains the orthonormal

signal eigenvectors, and 2C(2C-3K) UN contains the
noise eigenvectors. Os=diag(Os1,.., Os3K) corresponding
to signal eigenvectors, contains the 3K largest
eigenvalues of Rq in the descending order. From (8),
we can conclude that the eigenvectors of the noisy and
noise-free covariance matrix are the same, but the
eigenvalues differ. The influence of noise can be
reduced by increasing N.
It is convenient to use ICA, when the mixing matrix is
full rank, so qm can be compressed as Xm:

N 0 1/ 2 T
I ) U s (GBm  N m )
N
N
ABm  (Os  0 I ) 1/ 2 U sT N m
N
Xm

(Os 

m=1,2,..N (9)
Where A=(Os+N0/N)-1/2UsTG is a full rank matrix.
From [10], the mean square error of this compressing
method is minimal. But PCA can only impose
independence up to the second order [13] of the mixing
signal, the users information bits and spreading
sequence codes can not be got without further
processing. In the next section, ICA is utilized to
blindly estimate the information bits and spreading msequence codes based on this pre-whitening.

4. Blind estimation of users bits and

spreading m-sequences by ICA
From (9), the statistical distribution of users symbols
of DS-CDMA is sub Gaussian. The symbols
transmitted by different users are statistically
independent and the mixing matrix A is full rank. We
can find an orthonormal matrix W[3],[12]:
^

Ym

WX m

Bm m=1,2,..,N

(10)

Where, Ym is the estimation of Bm. One fast search

approach based on high-order statistical information
contained in the data sequences is the fast fixed-point
ICA algorithm, which is introduced in [14]. The fast
ICA algorithm has the following procedure:
1 Begin
to
search
orthonormal
matrix
W=[w1,w2,..,w3K] ,based on Ym. Let p=1.

2 Initialize wp with a random value of unity norm

1 N
wp (k ) (( wpT (k  1) xm )3 xm )
Nm1
3
3wp (k  1);

(11)

4 To achieve decorrelation, using Gram-Schmidtlike decorrelation, let

p 1

wp (k ) w p (k )  wTp (k ) w j w j

(12)

j 1

5let wp<=wp/||wp||
6if |wp(k)Twp(k-1)| is not sufficient close to 1, go to
3. Otherwise, let p=p+1;
7 if p<3k,go to 2. Otherwise end the search.
From the search procedure, the information of msequence codes and channel model are not needed,
which makes blind estimation of users signals
available. From (11), the influence of Gaussian noise
can be reduced by increasing the observing interval
NTb. The spreading m-sequences could also be got
through the ICA process.
Assume that N is sufficient large, and the value of
matrix s is always far more than N0/N in (8). From (9)
(10) and (11), we can conclude WA=I. It can be also
expressed as:

WA (Os 

N 0 1/ 2
I ) WU sT G
N

5. Get the desired signals by utilizing the

estimated GkT
In section IV, All the source signals are separated
by ICA, and GkFT containing the whole corresponding
spreading m-sequences information are also obtained.
Without multi-path interference, the spreading msequences can be obtained directly from GkFT. With
L

multi-path interference, GkF

wk (Os 

N 0 1/ 2 T
I ) Us
N

k=1,2,,3K (14)

Where, wk is the kth column vector of W. From (14),

(5) and (7), we can obtain the spreading m-sequence
codes information. Without multi-path interference,
every of gklE, gklFgklL (Lk=1) is corresponding to a
unique GkT, the spreading m-sequences can be directly
got according to the structure of gklE, gklFgklL. Define
GkFT is the GkT containing gklF. In multi-path channel,
L

T
GkF

a g
l

F
kl

and the spreading m-sequence

l 1

codes can not be detected directly. In the next section,

the estimated GkFT will be utilized to get the desired
signals.

F
kl

, the

spreading m-sequences cant be got directly. In the

DS-CDMA Downlink, the desired users spreading msequences is known. Based on the estimated GkFT this
section utilizes the autocorrelation and crosscorrelation of m-sequence to get the desired source
signal.
A 2C*C matrix D, whose column vectors contains
all the possible delay of the desired spreading msequences(sm(t)), can be constructed as:

1/2

Gk T

l 1

(13)

From (13), G is the inverse of matrix(Os+IN0/N)WUsT, But the calculation of an inverse matrix is
difficult. We propose a simple method to estimate G.
From (8), if N is large enough, the energy of signal
subspace will be always far larger than the energy of
noise subspace , GGT=Us(Os+IN0/N)UsT,. Substituting
GGT into (13), the kth row vector of G can be written
as:

a g

0
.
0
sm (1)
s (2) s (1) .
...
m
m
...
sm (2) .
0

...
.
0
sm (C )
0
sm (c) . sm (1)

0
. sm (2)
0
0
0
.
...

0
. sm (C )
0

(15)

Let A, which is defined the value of the dispreading

of all of the estimated K users, can be expressed as:

A(i )

T
A((k  1)C  n) [G1F T D,...GKF
D]

[r1 (1), r1 (2),..., r1 (C ),..rk ((k  1)C  n)

(16a)

,..., rK (( K  1)C  1),...rK ( KC )]

L

rk (n)

a (g
l

F T
kl

) D(n) ,k=1,2,...,K, n=1,2,, (16b)

l 1

Where D(n) is the nth column vector of D. When

k=m, the spreading m-sequence contained in GkT is the
same as the m-sequence contained in the D(n), and rk
is the autocorrelation function of m-sequences. When
km, the spreading m-sequence contained in GkT is
different from the m-sequence contained in the D(n),
and rk is the cross-correlation function of m-sequences.
When k=m, dl (which is one of the multi-path delay
time)=n, rk is the peak of autocorrelation function of
m-sequence. According to the above analysis, the
index k of the biggest rk decides which is the desired
signal. For example, If k=1, the first estimated signal
by ICA is the desired signal; If K=2, the second
estimated signal is the desired signal.

Figure 5 shows the BER (bit error rate) performance

of estimated information bits without MAI and multipath interference , and spreading m-sequence is g1(x).

6 The performance of estimated bits

under Gaussian noise
Now, the performance of blindly estimated bits will
be analyzed under Gaussian noise. Substituting (9),
(13)and (14) into (10),gives:

Ym

Bm  (Os 

N 0 1/ 2
I ) WU sT N m
N

(17)

N
Bm  (Os  0 I ) 1 GT N m
N

G2TF (i)

We can conclude that the MAI has been cancelled by

ICA, from (15). The kth element of column
vector Ym can be also expressed as:

Ym (k )

Bm (k ) 

GkT N m
k=1,2,..,3K
N0
Osk 
N

Where Osk is the kth diagonal element of

diagonalmatrix s . The value of sk is decided by the
mixing matrix G. With MAI and multi-path
interference, the close expression of sk is difficult to
get. Now, we give the close expression of Ym(k)
without MAI and multi-path interference. Based on
singular value decomposition[13], OskGkTGkN0/N,
k=1,2,3, if MAI and multi-path interference are absent.
Without MAI and multi-path interference, Ym(k) can
be expressed as:

Ym (k )

Bm (k ) 

Nm
GkT Gk

(18)

Figure1. the estimated m-sequence with g2(x)

G1TF (i)

k=1,2,3, (19)

(18) and (19) are the expressions of SNR under

Gaussian noise. From (19), the SNR of the estimated
information bits, is the same as the SNR of classical
CDMA single-user detection, without MAI and multipath interference.

Figure 2. the estimated m-sequence with g1(x)

7. Simulation results
Simulations have been carried out by Matlab to
check the validity of the proposed algorithm and its
performance. In all simulations, the length of m
sequence is 63, Tb=1/100, the observing interval
N=400.
Figure1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 4 are
obtained by the model of two users. One user
corresponding to G2FT contains a single path with the
amplitude and delay {(akl,dkl):(0.9,10)}, and msequence is g2(x)=X6+X5+X2+X+1. An other user
corresponding to G1FT contains two delay path with
amplitude and delay {(akl,dkl): (1,20),(0.5,30)},
g1(x)=X6+X+1. The spreading m-sequence of the
desired user is g1(x). The variance of Gaussian noise
N0 is 5.

Figure 3. the recovered users signal corresponding

to G1T compared with source signal

Figure 1. shows the estimated spreading msequences G2FT, which contains a single delay path.
Figure 2 shows the estimated spreading m-sequences
G1FT, which contains two delay paths. The spreading
m-sequence can be directly got without multi-path
interference in Figure1, while m-sequence can be
directly got with multi-path interference in Figure 2.

the value of A(i)

path delay time to get the desired signal. The process

to estimate the spreading m-sequences can be run after
the process of ICA, which is convenient for data
processing. The performance of blind estimation by
ICA is also given in the form of close expressions.

References
[1]
[2]
[3]

i {i=(k-1)C+n}

Figure 4. the value of A(i) versus i.

[4]

one user one path

simulation by the method of ICA

Bit error rate

[5]
ideal

[6]

SNR

[7]

Figure 5. BER as a function of SNR without

multi-path interference and MAI
[8]

Figure 3 compares the recovered users data under

the noise of N0=5 with the source data. It shows that
the data is correctly recovered.
In order to get the desired users signal,
A=[G1FT,,GKFT]D is calculated and shown at Figure
4. The index i of the biggest value A(i) is 21, so k=1.
According to the analysis of section V, the user with
spreading sequence G1FT is the desired user, which
agrees with the simulation condition.
Figure 5 shows the BER versus different SNR in
the absence of multi-path interference and MAI. The
simulation result of BER by ICA is almost the same
with the BER of ideal matched filter receive. And (17)
is verified.

8. Conclusions
The ICA method can be applied to blind estimation
signals in the DS-CDMA downlink, but the desired
signal can not be got directly. This paper proposes a
new method to blindly estimate both the users signals
and the corresponding spreading m-sequences by ICA.
Because the spreading sequence of the desired user is
initially known to the receiver, the desired signal can
be got by comparing the estimated spreading
sequences with the known desired spreading sequence.
This method does not need the information of multi-

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[10]

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