Chip-Level Channel Equalization in WCDMA Downlink

The most important third generation (3G) cellular communications standard is based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA). Receivers based on TDMA style channel equalization at the chip level have been proposed for a WCDMA downlink employing long spreading sequences to ensure adequate performance even with a high number of active users. These receivers equalize the channel prior to despreading, thus restoring the orthogonality of users and resulting in multiple-access interference (MAI) suppression. In this paper, an overview of chip-level channel equalizers is delivered with special attention to adaptation methods suitable for the WCDMA downlink. Numerical examples on the equalizers’ performance are given in Rayleigh fading frequency-selective channels.