IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 18, NO.
11, NOVEMBER 2000
A Comparison of GSM Receivers for Fading
Multipath Channels with Adjacent- and Co-Channel
Interference
Bjørn A. Bjerke, Student Member, IEEE, John G. Proakis, Life Member, IEEE, K. Y. Martin Lee, and
Zoran Zvonar, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—In this paper, we evaluate and compare several data
detection schemes used in GSM systems. In particular, we compare
the performance of decision feedback equalization (DFE) and non-
linear data directed estimation (NDDE) to that of maximum likeli-
hood sequence estimation (MLSE). Establishing the performance
of the basic NDDE detector is a first step in investigating the ap-
plicability of block transmission techniques to GSM systems. Our
simulation results, obtained both for fading multipath channels
and adjacent- and co-channel interference scenarios, suggest that
the NDDE offers certain performance advantages over the DFE,
and the performance of both detectors is comparable to that of the
MLSE for the SNR region of interest in practical systems. Thus,
they both represent viable alternatives to the MLSE detector.
Index Terms—Data detection, DDE, DFE, GSM, MLSE, wireless
communications.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE MAJORITY of today’s commercially available dig-
ital cellular communication systems utilize time division
multiple access (TDMA). In this paper, we evaluate and com-
pare several data detection schemes that can be used in TDMA
receivers. Our primary goal is to identify methods which can
achieve an effective tradeoff between performance and com-
putational complexity. We have chosen the global system for
mobile communications (GSM) as the framework for our in-
vestigations. The GSM standard, which is applicable to both
cellular (GSM-900) and PCS (GSM-1800, PCS-1900) systems,
is currently the most successful of digital cellular standards.
The GSM system facilitates transmission of digitized speech
and data using a TDMA scheme. Although most parts of the
system are covered in detail by the standard, one of the critical
parts, namely the data receiver, is specified in terms of perfor-
mance only, thus leaving room for manufacturers and operators
to implement individual solutions. The development of GSM
receivers is therefore a constantly evolving process, motivating
the investigation of complexity and performance of various re-
ceiver structures.
Manuscript received November 10, 1998; revised March 29, 2000. This paper
was presented in part at the 9th IEEE International Symposium on Personal,
Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), Boston, MA, September
1998.
B. A. Bjerke and J. G. Proakis are with the Department of Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA (e-mail:
bab@ece.neu.edu).
K. Y. Martin Lee and Z. Zvonar are with Analog Devices, Inc., Communica-
tions Division, Wilmington, MA 01887 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0733-8716(00)09201-5.
0733–8716/00$10.00 © 2000 IEEE
2211
The GSM system suffers from intersymbol interference (ISI)
introduced by both the partial response modulation employed
and time-varying multipath propagation in the radio channel.
As the symbol rate is high (270.8 kbits/s), the delay spread may
extend over several symbol periods. In order to achieve the best
possible bit error rate performance under such conditions, max-
imum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) is often used [1].
However, its computational complexity is high and increases ex-
ponentially with the length of the ISI. It is therefore of interest
to investigate receiver structures of lower complexity. The com-
plexity issue may be addressed at both algorithmic and archi-
tectural levels. At the algorithmic level, complexity can be re-
duced by using suboptimal methods such as reduced-state se-
quence estimation and decision feedback equalization (DFE).
Receivers based on the former principle have been studied ex-
tensively [2]. DFE-type receivers have also been used in place
of MLSE, achieving significant reduction in complexity at the
expense of only a modest performance degradation [3], [4]. At
the architectural level, complexity and performance constraints
are usually addressed by the design of co-processors or acceler-
ators for specific functions, such as the Viterbi algorithm used
to implement MLSE for equalization and decoding.
In this paper, we compare the performance of DFE and
MLSE, as well as investigate the applicability of block trans-
mission techniques to the GSM system. In particular, we
consider the use of nonlinear data directed estimation (NDDE),
a technique originally developed for use in HF modems [5].
We evaluate the performance of the NDDE detector as applied
to the GSM burst transmission structure, where we have a
midamble and tail bits rather than the usual pre- and postambles
found in HF systems. We compare the performance of both
the NDDE and the conventional DFE to that achieved by
MLSE under fading conditions as well as when the signal is
affected by co-channel interference (CCI), i.e., interference
caused by signals in neighboring cells operating at the same
carrier frequency, and adjacent-channel interference (ACI),
i.e., interference caused by signals in the same cell occupying
adjacent carrier frequencies.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section II we present
an equivalent complex baseband model for the physical layer of
the GSM system and an overview of the modulation method. A
brief review of the DFE is given in Section III, while the ap-
plication of the NDDE algorithm to the TDMA frame format is
discussed in Section IV. Simulation results are presented in Sec-
tion V, which compare the performance of the receivers under
2212 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 18, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2000
Fig. 1. The GSM normal burst structure.
Fig. 2. Complex equivalent baseband system model.
study in fading channels with CCI and ACI. Finally, in Sec-
tion VI, concluding remarks are given.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
The GSM system uses 124 radio channels, each of which pro-
vides eight user channels in the form of TDMA frames with
eight time slots. Each time slot provides room for a burst which
contains data as well as a training sequence used to estimate the
channel impulse response. The burst is phase modulated onto a
900 MHz carrier using binary Gaussian minimum shift keying
(GMSK) with normalized bandwidth , where is the
bandwidth and is the symbol duration.
On the basic GSM traffic channel, so-called normal bursts
of 148 error protected and interleaved bits are transmitted in
each time slot. A training sequence of 26 bits is embedded at the
middle of each burst, surrounded by two data sequences of 58
bits each, as shown in Fig. 1. The three tail bits at each end of the
burst are also known to the receiver—a fact which is exploited
by the NDDE detector.
In this paper, we consider the complex equivalent baseband
system shown in Fig. 2. The data bits are differentially precoded
before being modulated. The GMSK modulation is a continuous
phase modulation technique which is characterized by constant
envelope and narrow bandwidth. It deliberately introduces con-
trolled ISI to improve spectral efficiency. The information is car-
ried by the phase of the transmitted signal, and the total phase
signal is a linear function of the data sequence. The radio prop-
agation channel can be modeled by the wide-sense stationary,
uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) model [6]. For the purpose of
evaluating the performance of various receiver structures, GSM
Recommendation 05.05 defines four fading channel profiles for
theoretical and simulation study which capture the characteris-
tics of mobile radio channels [7]. These are the Hilly Terrain, the
Typical Urban, the Rural Area, and the Equalizer Test channel
profiles. Vehicle speeds are also specified for each of the chan-
nels, ranging from 3 to 250 km/h.
It has been shown that the baseband GMSK signal may be
approximated by a linear modulation [8], [9]. This has been ex-
plored in the design of data receivers, leading to the so-called se-
rial receiver concept. Making use of the linear approximation,
the received signal sampled at the symbol rate may be repre-
sented as
(1)
where
is the original binary ( ) data sequence,
represents the complex overall impulse response of the
channel, and
is white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with variance .
The overall channel includes the transmitter pulse, the actual
channel, and the impulse response of a predetection filter for
rejection of out-of-band interference and noise. We assume
that the channel response spans symbol intervals. The
discrete-time impulse response estimate made available by
the channel estimator therefore has length . Due to
the differential precoding performed at the transmitter, direct
restoration of the original data sequence from the in-phase
component of the received signal is possible, provided that no
errors are made in the sampling process. This is accomplished
by performing a constant phase rotation of on (1), which
corresponds to multiplication by . The multiplication
operation effectively performs differential decoding, so that
after matched filtering the in-phase component will contain the
information needed to restore the transmitted sequence. Thus,
BJERKE et al.: GSM RECEIVERS FOR FADING MULTIPATH CHANNELS WITH ADJACENT- AND CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
we may ignore the quadrature component and subsequently
process only the real part of the received signal, treating it as a
BPSK-type signal. The detector can therefore itself be real and,
thus, computationally much simpler than its complex counter-
part. This type of receiver is referred to as a serial receiver, as
opposed to a parallel (in-phase and quadrature) receiver.
Since the coherence times of the mobile radio channels en-
countered by the GSM system typically are much greater than
the duration of a TDMA time slot, these channels can be char-
acterized as slowly time-varying. We follow the usual approach
to GSM receiver design in this case, which is to consider the
channel as fixed during the burst period and, consequently, com-
pute the channel estimate only once per burst. The estimation
is performed by cross correlating the middle part of the re-
ceived burst (after phase rotation) with the original training se-
quence. The position of the correlation peak is utilized for burst
synchronization. The channel estimate is utilized by the var-
ious data detector schemes, as well as the matched filter. The
optimal receiver for the system at hand consists of a contin-
uous-time filter matched to the overall channel, followed by a
symbol-space sampler and an MLSE detector. However, in the
simulated system, a discrete-time matched filter is adaptively
set up once per burst, with an impulse response which is the
time-reversed complex conjugate of . The combination of
phase rotation and matched filtering performed on the received
signal produces an output whose real component is used for es-
timating the data sequence . It should be kept in mind that
this solution is only an approximation to the optimal receiver.
The output of the matched filter is represented by
(2)
where are the samples of the impulse response of the cas-
cade of and its matched filter taken at the rate , coefficients
is the largest expected number of symbols affected by the
ISI, and denotes the additive colored noise sequence at the
output of the matched filter.
Adopting a serial receiver structure, the real parts of the sam-
ples approximate the set of sufficient statistics for compu-
tation of the (real) metrics used in the MLSE. The maximum
likelihood estimates of the data symbols are those that
maximize the simplified recursive metrics
Re (3)
which suggests the use of the Viterbi algorithm [10]. This
particular MLSE takes as input the output of the matched
filter, and takes into account that the noise is colored. Since the
discrete-time impulse response estimate made available by the
channel estimator has length , the number of states in the
Viterbi algorithm is . Hence, the complexity of the MLSE
grows exponentially with .
In the following sections, we discuss the use of DFE and
NDDE as alternatives to the MLSE detector. Both the DFE and
the NDDE are derived subject to the minimum mean-squared
error (MMSE) criterion and the available channel estimates.
2213
III. DECISION FEEDBACK EQUALIZATION
The conventional DFE consists of a transversal feedforward
filter, a feedback filter, and a decision device [6]. The binary de-
cisions of the threshold detector are used as inputs to the feed-
back filter, ensuring stability in the feedback loop. In applying
the DFE to our baseband model of the GSM system, we optimize
the feedforward and feedback coefficients using the MMSE cri-
terion. This optimization is performed once per received burst,
based on the channel estimate and using as input the matched
filtered received signal which contains colored noise. The feed-
forward and feedback filters both have symbol-spaced taps.
The input to the decision device is given by
(4)
where and are the number of feedforward and
feedback coefficients, respectively, and denotes the decision
made on the symbol . Minimizing the mean squared error in
a similar fashion as presented in [6, Ch. 10], the feedforward
coefficients are found to be
(5)
where
(6)
and
(7)
As before, represents the samples of the autocorrelation
of . The prime denotes conjugate transpose. The feedback
are given by
(8)
where .
The solution for the DFE coefficients is valid for com-
plex-valued input signals. In our case, however, where we
have adopted a serial receiver structure, the input signals are
real-valued and the filtering operation is performed using the
real parts of the coefficients only. At first, the DFE operates
in initialization mode, where known bits are used as inputs to
the feedback filter. At the end of the known sequence, the DFE
goes into a decision-directed mode, where actual bit decisions
are fed back. The computational complexity of the DFE is
dominated by the filtering operation, whose complexity is
approximated by , where is the number
of data symbols to be detected.
IV. DATA DIRECTED ESTIMATION
The nonlinear data-directed estimator for fading and multi-
path HF channels was originally proposed in [5]. Recent, more
complete treatments can be found in [11] and [12]. In contrast to
the DFE and other symbol-by-symbol equalization methods, the
NDDE is based upon direct estimation of blocks of data, using
2214 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 18, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2000

Fig. 3. GSM burst structure.

a channel estimate which is assumed to be valid throughout

the duration of a burst. The method was originally developed
for a block transmission system, i.e., a single user system in .. .. ..
. . .
which data blocks of relatively modest size (e.g., 5–30 sym-
bols) are transmitted, each one immediately followed by a block
of training bits known to the receiver. We propose adapting the .. .. .. (13)
NDDE to the TDMA frame structure of the GSM system, where . . .
the data blocks are longer, and there is a midamble rather than
.. .. ..
the pre- and postambles found in HF systems. The following de- . . .
scription is largely based on [5].
Let us consider the simplified GSM burst shown in Fig. 3. We
let the known tail bits and the training sequence take on the roles and
of the training blocks of the original algorithm. Assuming that
all processing can be done after receiving the whole burst, we
split the burst into two observation blocks containing the data bit (14)
sequences and , respectively, and .. .. ..
. . .
process each observation block separately, but in an identical
manner. For the sake of illustration, we focus on the leftmost of
the two observation blocks. and are matrices, while is an
Since the channel is considered fixed during the burst period, matrix. Thus, (9) may be written as
the first observation block, , may be ap-
proximated by the matrix expression (15)

(9) Assuming that the estimated channel coefficients are valid

throughout the duration of the burst, the ISI due to the two
where is a channel matrix made up from the discrete-time training blocks can be reconstructed and subtracted from the
channel coefficient vector , edges of the observation block, resulting in the vector , which
is given by

(16)
.. (10)
. The data bits may then be estimated by minimizing the mean
squared error MSE . The minimization is com-
pletely analogous to that used to find the MMSE multiuser de-
(11) tector (see, for example, [6, Ch. 15]). Thus, the MMSE solution
for the data vector is

and is a vector of white Gaussian (17)

noise samples. The vector is made up of the three vec-
tors , , and where is an matrix with elements
, corresponding to the tail bits, the -bit
(18)
data sequence that we wish to detect, and the training sequence,
respectively. Since we have assumed a channel dispersion and represents the autocorrelation sequence of the channel
length of symbols, training symbols on either side coefficients , as before. The vector corresponds to the
of the data block need to be considered. The channel matrix output of the discrete-time matched filter using as input, and
may be split up into three submatrices , , and , is given by
where
(19)

The solution (17) differs from the one found in [5] and [11]
.. ..
. . (12) in that it also takes into account the noise in the system. The
equation can be solved using the generalized Levinson–Durbin
algorithm [13] or other, less complex approaches.
BJERKE et al.: GSM RECEIVERS FOR FADING MULTIPATH CHANNELS WITH ADJACENT- AND CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
It is well known that a linear equalizer is inadequate for
coping with the severe ISI that arises on channels which have
nulls in their spectral characteristics. The DFE is an effective
nonlinear solution to this problem. Motivated by this fact, a
nonlinear version of the linear data-directed estimator discribed
up to this point was proposed in [5]. The NDDE uses previously
detected symbols to cancel ISI in a recursive manner and thus
improve the performance on channels with spectral nulls. On
such channels, the MSE for the edge symbols and can
be considerably smaller than the MSE for the symbols in the
middle. After the first recursion, and are therefore the
two most reliable symbol estimates. In the NDDE, only these
two are kept for decision in the first stage, while the other esti-
mates, , are discarded. The soft estimates and
are quantized and treated as additional training symbols.
The corresponding ISI is then reconstructed and subtracted
from the vector , whose size has been reduced by two. The
symbols left in the block are estimated once again using the
reduced-size version of (17), and the procedure is repeated
recursively until all symbol decisions have been
obtained. In each step of the estimation, the amount of ISI
in the observation block is reduced. The second observation
block containing the second sequence of data symbols is
processed in an identical manner to yield the decision vector
. herence time of these channels is greater than the duration of a
As was the case for the MLSE and the DFE, we have adopted
a serial receiver structure in which the real part of the input
signal provides a sufficient statistic for detecting the symbols.
As a consequence, only the real parts of and are used, al-
though the above derivation is valid for complex-valued input
signals. The applicability of the NDDE in GSM is largely de-
pendent on the computational complexity of the method used
to perform the matrix inversion in (17), as it represents a major
contribution to the overall complexity of the detector. This is due
to the fact that GSM data blocks are relatively long compared to
the short blocks envisioned for the original NDDE application.
For example, the computational complexity of the NDDE using
the generalized Levinson–Durbin algorithm is since the
Levinson–Durbin recursion itself has complexity . How-
ever, less complex versions of the NDDE have been reported,
achieving complexity without compromising perfor-
mance [12].
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
For the purpose of evaluating different receivers in terms of
bit error rate (BER) performance, GSM Recommendation 05.05
specifies several fading channel profiles for practical simula-
tions which correspond to different radio propagation environ-
ments and vehicle speeds [7]. In Subsection A, we summarize
the main characteristics of the channel models used. In Subsec-
tions B and C, we present simulation results.
A. Channel Models
The channels are modeled as tapped delay lines with time-
varying tap weights. The channel profiles define the delays of
the taps and the average powers for the fading waveforms that
are used as tap weights. The fading waveforms are generated
2215
TABLE I
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GSM CHANNEL MODELS
using a modified version of the well-known Jakes’ method [14],
[15]. It is customary to consider three basic channel models
for simulations of the GSM system: the Hilly Terrain (HTx)
model, the Typical Urban (TUx) model, and the Rural Area
(RAx) model. Each model is used for simulations of a given ve-
hicle speed (denoted by x in the channel label). The main charac-
teristics of the models are listed in Table I, and the power delay
profiles for the 6-tap models are shown in Fig. 4 [7].
The Hilly Terrain model is a frequency-selective model with
a small coherence bandwidth. It is used in conjunction with a
vehicle speed of 100 km/h. The Typical Urban model is a fre-
quency-selective model with a relatively large coherence band-
width. It is used with vehicle speeds of 3 and 50 km/h. Finally,
the Rural Area model is frequency-nonselective and used in con-
junction with a vehicle speed of 250 km/h. As the minimum co-
TDMA time slot (the coherence time of the RA250 channel is
approximately 5 ms while the time slot duration is 0.58 ms [1]),
the channels are regarded as slowly fading.
GSM Recommendation 05.05 also specifies performance re-
quirements for the receiver when the received signal is affected
by adjacent-channel and co-channel interference. These are in-
terference effects generated by other users of the same system.
Co-channel interference (CCI) is caused by other users’ signals
which, as a consequence of the frequency reuse scheme, operate
at the same carrier frequency in a distant cell. For simulation of
CCI, the Recommendations specify that the desired and the in-
terfering signals are both to be subjected to the same propaga-
tion profile, but independently generated for each signal. Adja-
cent-channel interference (ACI) is generated by users operating
at adjacent carrier frequencies in the same cell as the desired
user. For simulation of ACI, GSM Recommendation 05.05 spec-
ifies that only the desired signal is to be subjected to multipath
propagation, while the interferer can be a static GMSK signal
with a given carrier frequency.
B. Performance in Fading Channels
For evaluation of the BER performance of the receivers dis-
cussed in this paper, we simulated the complex equivalent base-
band system shown in Fig. 2. A serial receiver structure was
adopted with the channel estimate taken to be long. For the
MLSE detector, this leads to a Viterbi algorithm which oper-
ates on a 16-state trellis. The channel estimation is performed
once per burst by cross correlating the midamble of the received
burst with the original training sequence. The channel estimator
then locates the position of the long window of the cross
correlation sequence which contains the maximum energy. The
sample sequence contained in this window is taken to be the
estimate of the channel impulse response. This procedure also
2216 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 18, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2000
Fig. 4. Power delay profiles for the HTx, TUx, and RAx channel models.
provides burst synchronization, as the start of the burst may be
determined from the position of the maximum-energy window.
As the channel is slowly time-varying, it is regarded by the re-
ceiver as fixed during the reception of a burst.
Fig. 5. Performance in the HT100 channel.
In the simulations performed using the DFE, the order of the
feedforward filter was 5 and the order of the feedback filter was
6. The filter coefficients were computed as described in Sec-
tion III. The NDDE results were obtained using the algorithm
described in Section IV, employing the Levinson–Durbin algo-
rithm to perform the matrix inversions.
Fig. 5 shows the BER versus in the HT100 channel.
This channel has a multipath spread of approximately and a
Doppler spread of approximately 80 Hz due to a vehicle speed
of 100 km/h. We observe that for in the range 6–12 dB,
the three detectors have similar performance. For higher
than 12 dB, the NDDE performs almost as well as the MLSE,
while the DFE experiences a performance loss of 1–2 dB.
The BER versus in the TU50 channel is shown in
Fig. 6. The multipath spread of this channel is and the
Doppler spread due to a vehicle speed of 50 km/h is approx-
imately 40 Hz. In this case, the NDDE experiences a perfor-
mance loss of 1 dB for higher than 10 dB, compared to
the MLSE. On the other hand, the NDDE outperforms the DFE
by approximately 2 dB for higher than 10 dB.
Finally, Fig. 7 shows the results obtained in the RA250
channel. This channel has a direct path whose envelope has
a Ricean distribution, but its multipath spread is only .
The high speed of 250 km/h results in a Doppler spread of
approximately 200 Hz, which can be experienced on some
highways in Europe as well as in high speed trains. We observe
that the performance of the three detectors is almost identical
in this channel.
Our simulation results suggest that the NDDE and the DFE
detectors perform just as well as the MLSE in the simulated
fading channels, in the range from 6 to 10 dB. This is the
region of practical interest for GSM systems. For higher
than 10 dB, the NDDE experiences a modest performance loss
BJERKE et al.: GSM RECEIVERS FOR FADING MULTIPATH CHANNELS WITH ADJACENT- AND CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
Fig. 6. Performance in the TU50 channel.
Fig. 7. Performance in the RA250 channel.
compared to the MLSE, while still providing performance im-
provement over the DFE.
C. Performance in the Presence of ACI and CCI
For evaluation of the performance in the presence of ACI,
only TU50 propagation conditions need to be simulated. The re-
ceiver front end contains an eight-pole Butterworth predetection
filter with a one-sided 3 dB bandwidth of 110 kHz. This filter is
included to reject out-of-band interference and limit noise. The
Recommendations require that the worst case carrier-to-inter-
ference ratio ( ), i.e., the power ratio between the desired
2217
Fig. 8. Performance in the presence of ACI (200 kHz, TU50).
signal and the interferer in the first adjacent channel (with a
carrier frequency that is offset by 200 kHz), be 9 dB. Fig. 8
shows the BER as a function of in the TU50 channel. The
interfering signal is a static signal, i.e., it does not experience
fading multipath propagation, and it is assumed to be continu-
ously modulated by a random bit stream. We observe that the
performance of the NDDE is similar to that of the MLSE. Fur-
thermore, the NDDE outperforms the DFE and the performance
gain increases with .
For evaluation of the performance in the presence of CCI, the
propagation conditions TU50 and RA250 are considered. GSM
Recommendation 05.05 specifies a worst-case of 9 dB, and
in this case both the desired signal and the interfering signal un-
dergo the same channel distortion. As was the case for ACI, the
interferer is assumed to be continuosly modulated by a random
bit stream and noise is absent from the simulation model.
Fig. 9 shows the BER as a function of in the TU50
channel. The best performance is achieved by the MLSE, fol-
lowed by the NDDE, whose performance is about 1 dB worse
for higher than 10 dB, and the DFE with a performance
loss of 1–2 dB compared to the MLSE for higher than 8 dB.
Fig. 10 shows the BER results in the RA250 channel with CCI.
In this case, all three detectors exhibit comparable performance.
Since none of the receivers has been designed with ACI or
CCI in mind, the simulation results represent their intrinsic sen-
sitivity to such interference. Based on the simulation results, we
can conclude that all receivers offer comparable resistance to
ACI and CCI, with the NDDE having a slight advantage over
the DFE and the MLSE providing the best performance.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have investigated the use of block trans-
mission techniques for the GSM system. We have established
performance results for the NDDE detector as applied to the
2218 IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 18, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2000
Fig. 9. Performance in the presence of CCI (TU50).
Fig. 10. Performance in the presence of CCI (RA250).
TDMA frame format of GSM. Based on simulations, we have
shown that the performance is comparable to that of the MLSE,
thus making it a viable alternative. The same conclusion ap-
plies to the DFE. However, the NDDE offers certain perfor-
mance improvements over the DFE that should also be consid-
ered. Having established the performance of the basic NDDE as
applied to the GSM system, using the relatively computationally
intensive Levinson–Durbin algorithm for matrix inversions, it
is of great interest to investigate how the complexity can be re-
duced while retaining the performance. Recent low complexity
approaches have been reported in [11] and [12].
Now that we have investigated and established the perfor-
mance of the block adaptive approach for slowly fading chan-
nels, further attention should be devoted to the fast fading sce-
nario. Under fast fading conditions, we can no longer update
channel estimates once per burst, but must instead track channel
variations on a symbol-by-symbol basis. For instance, in the
NDDE, the matrices that are based on the channel estimates may
be updated at the symbol rate, ensuring that more accurate es-
timates of the ISI are subtracted. This is of interest in systems
where the mobile may be moving at high speeds, as would be the
case in high-speed trains. Also, in systems operating at higher
frequencies, such as GSM-1800 and PCS-1900, the fading is
faster for the same mobile speed.
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Bjørn A. Bjerke (S’94) was born in Oslo, Norway
in 1969. He received the Siv. Ing. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the Norwegian Institute of
Technology (NTH) in 1995 and the M.S. degree in
electrical engineering from Northeastern University,
Boston, MA in 1997. He is currently a Research
Assistant at Northeastern University’s Center for
Communications and Digital Signal Processing
(CDSP), where he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering. His research interests
include digital communications for fading multipath
channels and related problems in wireless communications.
BJERKE et al.: GSM RECEIVERS FOR FADING MULTIPATH CHANNELS WITH ADJACENT- AND CO-CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
John G. Proakis (S’58–M’62–SM’82–F’84–LF’97)
received the E.E. degree from the University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH in 1959, the S.M. degree
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Cambridge, MA in 1961, and the Ph.D.
degree in engineering from Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA in 1966.
He was a Staff Member at the MIT Lincoln
Laboratory, Lexington, MA from 1961 to 1963,
and a Member of the Technical Staff at GTE from
1966 to 1969. Since September 1969, he has been
on the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, North-
eastern University, Boston, MA, where he held the positions of Department
Chair (1984–1997), Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate School of
Engineering (1982–1984), and Acting Dean (1992–1993). His professional
experience and interests are in the general area of digital communications and
digital signal processing. He is the author of the book Digital Communications
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 3rd ed., 1995), and the coauthor of Introduction to
Digital Signal Processing (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 3rd ed., 1996),
Digital Signal Processing Laboratory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
1991), Advanced Digital Signal Processing (New York: Macmillan, 1992),
Digital Processing of Speech Signals (New York: IEEE Press 2000), Commu-
nication Systems Engineering (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994),
Digital Signal Processing Using MATLAB (Boston, MA: PWS, 2000), and
Contemporary Communication Systems Using MATLAB (Boston, MA: PWS,
2000).
K. Y. Martin Lee received the B.Sc. degree from
UMIST, U.K. in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree from
Surrey University, U.K. in 1991. He has worked
at Motorola, Analog Devices and Algorex, Inc. on
various wireless systems including TETRA, IS-136,
GSM, and CDMA. He is currently a Systems
Manager in the Wireless Division of National
Semiconductor Corp., working on 2.5 G and 3 G
wireless chipset development. His interests include
compression technologies, DSP architectures and
general signal processing techniques for real-world
applications.
2219
Zoran Zvonar (S’88–M’89–SM’98) received the
Dipl. Ing. degree in 1986 and the M.S. degree
in 1989, both from the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
Northeastern University, Boston, MA in 1993.
From 1986 to 1989 he was with the Department
of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade,
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where he conducted research
in the area of telecommunications. From 1993 to
1994 he was a Post-Doctoral investigator at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, where he worked on
multiple-access communications for underwater acoustic networks. Since 1994
he has been with Analog Devices, Inc., Communications Division, Wilmington,
MA, where he is the Manager of the Systems Development Group focusing on
the design of algorithms and architectures for wireless communications, with
emphasis on integrated solutions and real-time software.
He was a Guest Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR
TECHNOLOGY, the International Journal of Wireless Information Networks
and the ACM/Baltzer Wireless Networks, and a Co-Editor of the books GSM:
Evolution Toward Third Generation Systems, (Kluwer Academic Publishers,
1998), and Wireless Multimedia Networks Technologies, (Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 1999). Dr. Zvonar is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE
Communications Letters and Feature Editor of the series on Software & DSP
in Radio in the IEEE Communications Magazine.