Combined power control and successive interference cancellation in DS/CDMA communications

Abstract

It is well known that code division multiple access (CDMA) systems are interference-limited, and that the performance of CDMA systems depends on the success in managing the interference. Interference managements in terms of power control and interference cancellation have been investigated extensively in the past. We consider combining power control (PC) and successive interference cancellation (SIC), and show that the performance can be significantly improved by controlling the transmission power such that received power levels are geometrically distributed. We also show that the dynamic range of transmission power levels can be reduced by combining PC with SIC, thereby alleviating a stringent requirement on power amplifier and step size/frequency of power control commands.