Bit Chip Correlation MMSE Receiver with

Multipath Interference Correlative Timing

for DS-CDMA Systems

Sign

Tsuyoshi HASEGAWA and Masahiko SHIMIZU

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
Yokosuka, Japan
Abstract-This paper proposes a sign bit chip correlation MMSE
receiver with multipath interference correlative timing or sign bit
CCMRM for downlink direct sequence code division multiple
access (DS-CDMA). The proposed method significantly reduces
the associated complexity without degrading the BER
performance by using sign bit chip correlation and appropriate
compensation for the elements of the sign bit chip correlation
matrix. Our estimations have shown that the complexity of the
method proposed for the W-CDMA receiver is about 1/8 that of
normal CCMRM.

Keywords: CDMA; MMSE; Multipath Interference; Equalizer

I.
INTRODUCTION
In mobile communications systems, the propagation
channels generally encounter multipath fading. Although
DS-CDMA downlink receivers based on simple RAKE
receivers can achieve a high performance in a multipath fading
environment, multiple-access interference (MAI) and inter-chip
interference (ICI) caused by multipath fading limits the capacity
and performance of DS-CDMA systems.
Various solutions to this problem have been proposed [1]-[3].
These approaches are based on conventional RAKE receivers.
Significant improvements in performance have been achieved
using extra fingers, placed on particular timings to whiten the
interference, and optimal combining weights. The generalized
RAKE receiver approach [3], however, requires further efforts
to determine the particular timings for the extra fingers.
Recently, we proposed a new method using multipath
interference correlative timing (MICT), called a chip correlation
MMSE receiver with the MICT or CCMRM method [1]. We
have shown that the receiver is capable of tracking a fast-fading
channel by using a chip correlation matrix to obtain the

combining weight.
The CCMRM achieves high performance by using an
MMSE that combines ordinary RAKE timing signals and
additional MICT signals. The MMSE combining weight is
obtained from the chip correlation matrix, where an element of
the matrix is the chip correlation value of the received signals
obtained using a relatively simple structure. Although the
CCMRM is much less complex than a typical equalizer, it is still
more complex than most RAKE receivers. The main reason for
the complexity is that the CCMRM must perform many
calculations to obtain an accurate correlation value for each
matrix element. In our simulation, we needed about 2560
averaging samples to attain convergence [1].

0-7803-9392-9/06/$20.00 (c) 2006 IEEE

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In this paper, we examine a new structure for obtaining the

correlation values, in which the correlation values are obtained
from the sign bits of the received signals before despreading
with appropriate compensation. Since a sign bit is extracted
from the received signal prior to multiplying, the new structure
can use a single-bit multiplication unit. This allows us to
significantly reduce the complexity of the CCMRM. Moreover,
by the appropriate compensation, the BER performance with a
new structure hardly shows any degradation from the one-bit
limitation.
This paper is organized as follows. In the following section,
we will discuss and describe the DS-CDMA downlink signal
model and correlation matrix, followed by a description in
Section III of the sign bit chip correlation MMSE receiver
structure and sign bit correlation analysis. We present our
computer simulations in Section IV and complexity estimation
in Section V, before presenting our conclusions in Section VI.
DS-CDMA DOWNLINK SIGNAL MODEL AND
CORRELATION MATRIX
We have assumed a DS-CDMA system downlink signal in
this paper, which is obtained as follows. The physical channel
data is mapped to a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK)
symbol, and spread using a channel-specific channelization
code. All other physical channel data are multiplexed after
spreading, scrambled using a scrambling code, and transmitted
from a base station, where each channelization code is
orthogonal, and the scrambling code periods are significantly
longer than the channelization code length [6]. In this case, the
received signal vR(t) at the mobile terminal cab be written:
II.

N-1

Nc- I

VR t

1=0

n=--

a(l) k=OEb(') Nh(t -kT -nNT) +n(t)

(1

where a(0n is the n-th transmitted data symbol of the l-th

physical channel, b()0onN ...b(lN-]nN is the spreading code for
n-th data of l-th CDMA channel a0n, produced by multiplying
the channelization code by the scrambling code, N is the
spreading factor, Nc is the number of physical channels, n(t) is
noise, and h(t) is the impulse response function that includes a
transmission filter, a receiving filter, and a multipath fading
channel. The transmitted signal a'0) is obtained by despreading
using a spreading code b(0o ...b(0N] , and the despread signal
vD(t) is given by:

VD (t)=

N-1

Ebi*VR(t + IT)

(2)

1=0

Let us now consider the RAKE type receiver, which combines

Rij

several despread signals VD(ti) using weight wi to improve the

symbol signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). The

combined signal z is given by

= wHy,

w
[VD (t1)7VD (01) , VD (tNf)]T, W= [W1, W2,
WNfIT
is the Hermitian transposition of a, Nf is the number of
combining fingers, and ti is the despread timing, including the
conventional RAKE timing and MICT. A combining weight for
the CCMRM method is given by using a chip correlation matrix
R as in [1]:

D
Compensation coef.

where

a"

R-1'h

WR

(3)

h = [h(t1),h(t2), h(tN )]T is the channel response vector.

The chip correlation matrix is obtained from the received signals
VR(ti) as shown in Fig. 1, written as:
where

Rij (VR(t)VR(t j))

(4)

where () denotes the expected value. The CCMRM method

shows a good fading tracking performance by using received
signals VR(ti) instead of despread signals VD(ti).
III.

SIGN BIT CHIP CORRELATION MMSE RECEIVER

[1].

To reduce this kind of complexity, we examined a new

structure, shown in Fig. 2, in which sign bits are extracted from
the received signals prior to multiplying and the appropriate
compensation coefficient D is multiplied after averaging to
obtain the correlation values. Since the new structure can use a
single-bit multiplication unit, it allows us to significantly reduce
the complexity of the CCMRM. In this new structure, the chip
correlation matrix is written as:

Multiplication

(Chip Data)

in Fig.

2.

At first, we consider real random variables with a Gaussian

distribution. The Gaussian probability density function of two
random variable x1 and x2 with a mean of 0, correlation c and
variance c2 is written as:
xTRnxIX

(6)

(2ff)T R,,
denotes the transpose vector of x, and x is a vector of
random variables:
x

(7)

(X1, X2 )T

and Rn is the correlation matrix:

072

R,

.xIx2)

(XIx2))=
07

07

21

(8)

We used c = <x1x2> / G2. The probability of S(x1)S(x2) becoming

one is the sum of the probability P, of both x1 and x2 being
positive values and the probability P of both x1 and x2 being
negative values. P, and P are given by:

P++ P-

Jo P(X1,x2)dx1dx2

(9)

jt

(10)

If + erf

(5)

Multi-bit

Received Data

B. Sign Bit Correlation Analysis

To obtain an appropriate compensation coefficient, we need
to examine the behavior of the sign bit correlation. Since usual
CDMA downlink signals are generated by multiplexing many
channel data after spreading by its own spreading code, we can
assume the Gaussian distribution for the received signal shown

where

A. Proposed Structure
Although the CCMRM is much less complex than a typical
equalizer, it is still more complex than most RAKE receivers.
The main reason for the complexity is that the CCMRM must
perform many calculations to obtain an accurate correlation
value for each matrix element. In our simulation, we needed
about 2560 multiplied averaging samples to attain convergence

Ri D(S(VR (t ))S(VR (tj )) )

=
where S(x) Re(x)/ Re(x)l +j Im(x)/Im(x)l .

Figure 2. Proposed structure for obtaining an element of the chip correlation

matrix by using sign bit correlation

exp( t2 )dt

Similarly, The probability of S(X1)S(X2) becoming minus one is

the sum of probabilities P+ and P and they are given by:
,

P+-

2ar1I
f
fo[
--

Figure 1. Typical structure for obtaining an element of the correlation matrix

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(1 1)

P(X1 x2)dxldx2

J=

(1

c2)

exp(

t2k)t

(12)

The expected value of S(X1)S(X2) is written as:

correlation matrix by sign bit correlation is modified as in Fig. 4,

and expressed as:

E[S(x1)S(x2)] P++ P-- P- P+

2

erf

exp(-(t2)t

Rij

(13)

where A(i) is number of the antenna related to the i-th finger.

1

We examined the computer simulation for the case of

complex random variables with a Gaussian distribution. We
modeled two complex Gaussian random variables x1 and x2 with
correlation c and the same variance of one for xi= n and

C. Sign Bit CCMRAMMethodfor Receiving Diversity

The sign bit correlation concept is capable of producing a
CDMA receiver with receiving diversity using multiple
receiving antennas. In a receiver with receiving diversity, the
expected value of the sign bit correlation is still expressed as
(13) by replacing the c by

KXIX2)

(14)

where uk and q1 are the variances or average receiving powers

of the k-th and l-th antenna, respectively. Since the expected
value of the sign bit correlation is not <x1x2> but as given in
to obtain the
(14), we must multiply the coefficient
<xIx2>. In a single antenna system we can omit this operation,
since all the elements in the bit correlation matrix have the same
coefficient llo. In a multiple antennas system, however, we
cannot omit this average receiving power compensation. Then,
the proposed structure for obtaining an element of the chip

-Real SBC of eq. (13)

Complex SBC with arg c = O.Opi or m*pi/2
Complex SBC with arg c = 0.1 pi
Complex SBC with arg c = 0.2pi

0.9
0.8

0.7
c
06
X 0.6

n2 where n, and n2 are independent complex

variables with a Gaussian distribution and a variance of one. The
expected value is obtained by averaging S(X1)S(X2)*.
Fig. 3 shows these results for the expected value of the sign
bit correlation as a function of the absolute value of the
correlation c andy=0.651cl for comparison. From this figure, we
can see that the result of (13) is almost proportional to c when c
< 0.5, and that the proportional coefficient is about 0.65. When c
> 0.5, the expected value increases to one at c = 1. The result of
(13) is identical with the result of the computer simulations for
complex random variables in the case when the phase angle of c
is m2t/2, where m is an integer. At the other phase angles, the
function of the expected sign bit correlation value becomes
close to the line y=0.651cl.
As shown in Appendix A, the correlation values (4) of the
multipath signal do not exceed 0.5, except for the case of self
correlation. Thus all the elements of the sign bit correlation
matrix are proportional to the correlation value obtained by
normal correlation (4) except for the diagonal element.
Therefore, by compensating the diagonal element of the sign bit
correlation matrix, it becomes proportional to the normal
correlation matrix R. The compensation is easily done by
multiplying the compensation coefficient D by a value of around
0.65.
X2 =cn, + 1

A()Aj)D(S(v, (ti ))S(vR (tj ))*)

Complex SBC with arg c = 0.25pi

0.651cl

0.5
02I
04

rm
_I

0.4

ao 0.3
ao

a 0.2

LU

0.1
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4
0.5
0.6
Correlation Value Icl

0.7

0.8

0.9

Figure 3. Expected values for the absolute value of the sign bit correlation
(SBC) of a real random variable and a complex random variable as a function of
the absolute value of the correlation c
Single-bit

Multiplication

Rec. Data
of Antenna

#A(i) ~~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~vrag ngR

Rec. Data

of Antenna

#A(j)

Dea
t

12 AveragingD

CA()

compensation coef.

Figure 4. Proposed structure for obtaining an element of the chip correlation

matrix by using sign bit correlation with average receiving power compensation
in receiving diversity with two antennas

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

We investigated the appropriate compensating coefficient
and the bit error rate (BER) performance using computer
simulations. Table 1 lists the simulation conditions. During
simulation, path timings are known values, the transmission
environment is mainly a three-path equal-strength Rayleigh
fading channel. The despreading timings are three conventional
RAKE timings and six MICTs, the same as in [1], the pilot

channel (CPICH) and the data channel (DPCH) spreading

factors are 256 and 16 respectively[6], IorlIoc = 10 dB, where I,o
denotes the total received power at the mobile terminal, and I,,
denotes the total noise power, and the CPICH and DPCH
EfcIIor.are -1OdB and -6dB respectively, where E, is the average
power of the receiving data channel.
As we mentioned in the above, the diagonal element of the
sign bit chip correlation matrix must be compensated by an
appropriate coefficient of around 0.65. To determine the
appropriate coefficient, we performed a computer simulation in
a given propagation environment. Fig. 5 shows the bit error rate

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(BER) property as a function of the diagonal element

compensation coefficient D in two-path and three-path equal
strength Rayleigh fading channels and the Case 3 (four-path)
environment which is defined in the 3GPP specifications [5].
From this figure, we can see that the BER shows a minimum
value of around D = 0.65 in all the propagation environments,
that the BER is not sensitive to D around the minimum BER,
and that D = 0.7 exhibits the best performance in all
environments. The reason that the optimum value of D slightly
differs from 0.65 is considered to be because the CDMA signal
is not completely distributed according to a Gaussian
distribution.
Fig. 6 shows the BER convergence performance using the
sign bit CCMRM method with a diagonal element
compensation coefficient of D = 0.7, the sign bit CCMRM
method without compensation, and the normal CCMRM
method in a three-path equal-strength propagation environment.
From Fig. 6, we can see that the sign bit CCMRM method
without compensation shows a similar convergence curve to the
normal CCMRM method. However, it shows a worse BER
convergence than that of the normal CCMRM method. On the
other hand, we can see that the sign bit CCMRM method with
compensation and the normal CCMRM method show the same
convergence for BER, and that the BER of both methods needs
more than 2560 samples. In subsequent simulations, we used
2560 samples for the number of averages.
Fig. 7 shows the BER performance as a function of the
DPCH EcIIor for the sign bit CCMRM method with and without
compensation and the normal CCMRM method. Although the
sign bit CCMRM without compensation shows about 0.5 dB
degradation relative to a normal CCMRM at BER=0. 1, the sign
bit CCMRM with diagonal element compensation exhibits
almost the same level of performance as for a normal CCMRM.
We also confirmed that the sign bit CCMRM is capable of
receiving diversity using two receiving antennas. Usually, the
distance between two antennas attached to a small mobile
terminal is short, the transmitted signal from the base station is
received by each antenna at the same timing with different
fading channels in a typical propagation environment. Since the
chip correlation of the signals received by different antennas
with the same timing is expected to be large, we must
compensate the sign bit correlation value in this case.
Fig. 8 shows the BER property as a function of the
compensation coefficient D for the same timing with different
receiving antennas, namely ti = tj and A(i) . A(I), in two-path
and three-path equal strength Rayleigh fading channels and the
Case 3 environment. From this figure, we can see that the BER
shows a minimum value around D = 0.95 in all the propagation
environment, and that D = 0.95 exhibits the best performance in
all environments.
Fig. 9 shows the BER performance of the CDMA receiver
using receiving diversity as a function of DPCH EIIor for the
sign bit CCMRM method with and without compensation and
the normal CCMRM method. Although the sign bit CCMRM
without compensation shows about 1.3 dB degradation relative
to a normal CCMRM at BER=0.1, the sign bit CCMRM with
compensation for the same timing and average receiving power

exhibits almost the same level of performance as for the normal

CCMRM.
SIMULATION CONDITIONS

TABLE I.

Modulation

3-path equal strength static or

Rayleigh fading channel
Conventional RAKE timing
and MICT
QPSK

SF of CPICH / DPCH

256 /16

Ior/Ic,

10 dB

Ec/Ior of CPICH / DPCH

CPICH averaging for
channel estimation

-10 / -6 dB

Fading environment
Dispreading timings

20 symbols

-2-path equal strength

-3-path equal strength

Case3 (4path in 3GPP[51)

mU

0.1

0.01
0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

1.10

1.20

1.30

1.40

1.50

1.60

Diagonal Element Compensation Coefficient D

Figure 5. BER property of the sign bit CCMRM as a function of the diagonal
element compensation coefficient D
+

Normal CCMRM

Sign bit CCMRM w/o compensation

--*-Sign

0.7 compensation

001

0.01

0.001

bit CCMRM w/

10

20

40

80
160 320 640 1280 2560 5120 10240
Number of averaging samples

Figure 6. Comparison of the BER convergence properties

V.

COMPLEXITY ESTIMATION
We estimated the complexity of our proposed method. We
assumed the use of a W-CDMA receiver with nine fingers (three
ordinary RAKE fingers, and six MICT fingers), one multi-code
and a spread factor of 16. We used the Gauss-Seidel method
with three iterations to obtain the weight vector and the relative
costs of addition, multiplication and division are 1, 10 and 40

respectively [7].

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Table II shows our estimation result of the cost per 256 chips.
Since the correlation matrix computation cost is reduced by
about 1/16 by using sign bit correlation, the complexity of the
proposed method for a W-CDMA receiver is about 1/8 that for a
normal CCMRM.
TABLE II.

ESTIMATION RESULT OF COST PER 256 CHIPS

Normal

(VT (tl )VT (t2 )) =

V(1T 2

(t, t2 )

(17)

(tl # t2 )

We can easily show that the maximum value of the correlation

value c in (16) is 0.5 when h1 equal h2. Similarly, we can easily
show that the maximum correlation value with different timings
is less than 0.5 in a three or more path propagation environment.

Sign Bit

CCMRM CCMRM

DPCH Despreading
CPICH Despreading
Channel Estimation
Correlation Matrix Computation
Weight Vector Computation
Detection

4608
4608
360
417508
13365
6048
288
446785

Combining
Total

4608
4608
360
25367
13365
6048
288
54644

-2-path equal strength

-3-path equal strength
Case3 (4-path in 3GPP[51)
0.1

LU

In

VI. CONCLUSIONS
We are proposing a sign bit chip correlation MMSE receiver
with MICT for DS-CDMA. The proposed method is able to
significantly reduce the complexity of the CCMRM without
degrading the BER performance by using single-bit chip
correlation and appropriate compensation for the elements ofthe
sign bit chip correlation matrix.

0.01

04

05

06

07

08

09

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

Diagonal Element Compensation Coefficient D

Figure 8. BER property of the sign bit CCMRM as a function of the

compensation coefficient D for the same timing with different antennas

+ N ormal CC MRM

I~~~

0.1

0.01

-4

Sign bit CCMRM w/o compensation

0.1

No rmal CCM RM
0.01

Sign bit CCMRM w/o compensation

Sign bit CCMRM w/ 0.7 compensation

0.001

-1 5

-1 4

-1 3

-1 2

-1 0

-1

-9

-8

-7

-6

0 .00

Ec/lor

Figure 7. BER performance

as a

Appendix A
In a two-path propagation environment, the received signal
vR(t) at the mobile terminal is written in terms of the transmitted
signal v4t)as:

VR(t)= hvT(t- tj) h2VT(t t2)

(15)
where hi is the propagation channel, ti is the receiving timing and
we have assumed that the noise power is zero. Self-correlation c
of the received signal with timing t1 and t2 is written as:

(VR (tl )VR (t2 ))

VR (t)|

if we assumed that v4t) has

different timings, namely:

-1 5

-1 4

-13

-1 2

a zero

hlh2

-10

-11

-9

-8

-6

E./lor

function of DPCH Ec/Ior.

Figure 9. BER performance

[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]

f2 + |h2 12

[5]

self-correlation value in

[6]
[7]

function of DPCH Ec/Ior in receiving

diversity

as a

T. Hasegawa, M. Shimizu, "A Chip Correlation MMSE Receiver with

Multipath Interference Correlative Timing for DS-CDMA Systems," Proc.
IEEE Veh. Tech. Conf (VTC 2005 Spring)
T. Hasegawa, M. Shimizu, "Multipath Interference Reduction Property
by Using Multipath Interference Correlative Timing Throughout for
DS-CDMA Systems," Proc. IEEE Veh. Tech. Conf (VTC 2003 Spring)
G. Kutz and A. Chass, "On the Performance of a Practical Downlink
CDAMA Generalized RAKE Receiver, " Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology
Conference 2002, VTC Fall 2002, pp. 1352-1356
3GPP TS 25.21 1, "Physical channels and mapping of transport channels
onto physical channels (FDD)"
3GPP TS 25.101, "User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and
reception (FDD)"
3GPP TR 25.213, "Spreading and modulation (FDD)"
3GPP TSG-RAN-1 Meeting #34 Oct. 6-10, 2003 R1-03 1085

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