Adaptive interference suppression in multiuser wireless OFDM systems using antenna arrays

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of mitigating fading and interference in wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multiple access communication systems. Applications include cellular mobile radio, wireless local loop, and wireless local area networks. The effect of interchannel interference (ICI) arising from time-selective fading and frequency offsets and co-channel interference (CCI) is analyzed. A loop-timing method that enables a synchronous uplink between multiple mobile transceivers and a base-station is described. Adaptive antenna arrays are utilized at the base for uplink reception, and optimum array combining based on the maximum SINR criterion is used for each subchannel over slowly time-varying channels. For operation over fast time-varying channels, a novel two-stage adaptive array architecture that incorporates combined spatial diversity and constraint-based beamforming is presented. While ICI alone is most effectively overcome by spatial diversity, combined beamforming and diversity are most effective to combat CCI in the presence of fading. The overall method is suitable for real-time implementation and can be used in conjunction with traditional coding schemes to increase the link-margin.