Multiuser detection with base station diversity

A method for combining multiuser detection with base station diversity is presented for the uplink of a multiple access network composed of K transmitters and M receivers. At each base station, a K user soft-output multiuser receiver is implemented using the log maximum a posteriori (log-MAP) algorithm. The log-likelihood ratio outputs from the M base stations are combined before a final hard decision is made. This strategy has the ability to simultaneously mitigate the detrimental effects of both multiuser interference and fading, and has the potential to extend cell range and reduce the frequency reuse distance. Simulation results are shown for a time division multiple access (TDMA) network with 3 users and 3 base stations.