Iterative interference suppressor for wireless multiple-access systems with multiple receive antennas

Abstract

This invention teaches to the details of an interference suppressing receiver for suppressing intra-cell and inter-cell interference in coded, multiple-access, spread spectrum transmissions that propagate through frequency selective communication channels to a multiplicity of receive antennas. The receiver is designed or adapted through the repeated use of symbol-estimate weighting, subtractive suppression with a stabilizing step-size, and mixed-decision symbol estimates. Receiver embodiments may be designed, adapted, and implemented explicitly in software or programmed hardware, or implicitly in standard RAKE-based hardware either within the RAKE (i.e., at the finger level) or outside the RAKE (i.e., at the user or subchannel symbol level). Embodiments may be employed in user equipment on the forward link or in a base station on the reverse link. It may be adapted to general signal processing applications where a signal is to be extracted from interference.

Claims

1. A base station configured to process signals received from a plurality of wireless terminals, the base station comprising: a memory; one or more computer programs stored in the memory; and one or more processors that, in response to executing the one or more computer programs: combine a plurality of constituent signals to produce a synthesized received signal; subtract the synthesized received signal from a received signal to produce a residual signal; scale the residual signal to produce a scaled residual signal; combine the scaled residual signal with each of the plurality of constituent signals to form a plurality of interference suppressed constituent signals; time-advance the plurality of interference suppressed constituent signals to produce a plurality of time-advanced signals; and combine the plurality of time-advanced signals corresponding to a first user to produce a first combined user signal.

2. The base station of claim 1, further comprising a Rake receiver configured to generate the plurality of constituent signals based on signals received from the plurality of wireless terminals.

3. The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, in response to executing the one or more computer programs: multiply the synthesized received signal by complex conjugates of a plurality of users' coded waveforms; and integrate resultant products to despread the synthesized received signal.

4. The base station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of users.

5. The base station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of rake fingers.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of users' code waveforms.

7. A base station configured to process signals received from a plurality of wireless terminals, the base station comprising: a memory; one or more computer programs stored in the memory; and one or more processors that, in response to executing the one or more computer programs: combine a plurality of constituent signals to produce a synthesized received signal; subtract the synthesized received signal from a received signal to produce a residual signal; scale the residual signal to produce a scaled residual signal; combine the scaled residual signal with a subset of the plurality of constituent signals to form a plurality of interference suppressed constituent signals; time-advance the plurality of interference suppressed constituent signals to produce a plurality of time-advanced signals; weight the plurality of time-advanced signals to produce a plurality of weighted, time-advanced signals; and combine the plurality of weighted, time-advanced signals corresponding to a first user to produce a first combined user signal.

8. The base station of claim 7, further comprising a Rake receiver configured to generate the plurality of constituent signals based on signals received from the plurality of wireless terminals.

9. The base station of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors, in response to executing the one or more computer programs: multiply the synthesized received signal by complex conjugates of a plurality of users' coded waveforms; and integrate resultant products to despread the synthesized received signal.

10. The base station of claim 7, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of users.

11. The base station of claim 7, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of rake fingers.

12. The base station of claim 7, wherein the plurality of constituent signals corresponds to a plurality of users' code waveforms.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Embodiments according to the present invention are understood with reference to the following figures.

(2) FIG. 1 is a general schematic illustrating an iterative interference suppressor for multiple receive antennas.

(3) FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a per-antenna front-end RAKE and combiner.

(4) FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a per base-station front-end combiner configured for combining like base-station signals across antennas, a de-spreading module, and an initial symbol decision module.

(5) FIG. 4 is a general schematic of an ICU configured to process signals from multiple receive antennas.

(6) FIG. 5a is a per-antenna block diagram illustrating part of an interference-suppression unit that synthesizes constituent finger signals.

(7) FIG. 5b is a per-antenna block diagram illustrating part of an interference-suppression unit that synthesizes constituent subchannel signals.

(8) FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a subtractive suppressor in which suppression is performed prior to signal despreading.

(9) FIG. 7a is a block diagram illustrating per-antenna RAKE processing and combining on interference-suppressed finger signals.

(10) FIG. 7b is a block diagram illustrating per-antenna RAKE processing and combining on interference-suppressed subchannel constituent signals.

(11) FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating antenna combining, de-spreading, and symbol estimation in an ICU.

(12) FIG. 9a is a block diagram illustrating an ICU wherein subtractive suppression is performed after signal de-spreading.

(13) FIG. 9b shows an alternative embodiment of an ICU configured for performing subtractive suppression after signal de-spreading.

(14) FIG. 9c shows another embodiment of an ICU.

(15) FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an ICU configured for an explicit implementation.

(16) FIG. 11a is a block diagram illustrating a method for evaluating a stabilizing step size implicitly in hardware.

(17) FIG. 11b is a block diagram depicting calculation of a difference signal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

(18) FIG. 11c is a block diagram depicting implicit evaluation of step size in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

(19) Various functional elements or steps, separately or in combination, depicted in the figures may take the form of a microprocessor, digital signal processor, application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or other logic circuitry programmed or otherwise configured to operate as described herein. Accordingly, embodiments may take the form of programmable features executed by a common processor or discrete hardware unit.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(20) The present invention will now be described more folly hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

(21) The following formula represents an analog baseband signal received from multiple base stations by antenna a of a receiver,
y.sub.a(t)=.sub.s=1.sup.B.sub.l=1.sup.L.sup.a,s.sub.a,s,l.sub.k=1.sup.K.sup.sb.sub.s,ku.sub.s,k(t.sub.a,s,l)+w.sub.a(t), t(0,T) Equation 1
with the following definitions a represents an a.sup.th antenna of a mobile and ranges from 1 to A; (0, T) is a symbol interval; B is a number of modeled base stations, which are indexed by subscript s, which ranges from 1 to B. The term base station may be used herein to convey cells or sectors; L.sub.a,s is the number of resolvable (or modeled) paths from base station s to antenna a of the mobile, and is indexed from 1 to L.sub.a,s; .sub.a,s,l and .sub.a,s,l are, respectively, the complex gain and delay associated with an l.sup.th path from base station s to antenna a of the mobile; K.sub.s represents a number of active subchannels in base station s that employ code division multiplexing to share the channel. The subchannels are indexed from 1 to K.sub.s; u.sub.s,k(t) is a code waveform (e.g., spreading waveform) used to carry a k.sup.th subchannels symbol for an s.sup.th base station (e.g., a chip waveform modulated by a subchannel-specific Walsh code and covered with a base-station specific PN cover); b.sub.s,k is a complex symbol being transmitted for the k.sup.th subchannel of base station s; and w.sub.a(t) denotes zero-mean complex additive noise on the a.sup.th antenna. The term w.sub.a(t) may include thermal noise and any interference whose structure is not explicitly modeled (e.g., inter-channel interference from unmodeled base stations, and/or intra-channel interference from unmodeled paths).

(22) FIG. 1 illustrates an iterative interference suppressor in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Received signals from each of a plurality of antennas 100.1-100.A are processed by corresponding RAKE receivers 101.1-101.A. Each RAKE receiver 101.1-101.A may comprise a maximal ratio combiner (not shown).

(23) Multipath components received by each RAKE receiver 101.1-101.A are separated with respect to their originating base stations and processed by a plurality B of constituent-signal analyzers 102.1-102.B. Each constituent-signal analyzer 102.1-102.B comprises a combiner, a despreader, and a symbol estimator, such as combiner 111.s, despreader 112.s, and symbol estimator 113.s in constituent-signal analyzer 102.s.

(24) Signals received from different antennas 100.1-100.A corresponding to an s.sup.th originating base station are synchronized, and then combined (e.g., maximal ratio combined) by combiner 111.s to produce an s.sup.th diversity-combined signal. The despreader 112.s resolves the s.sup.th diversity-combined signal onto subchannel code waveforms, and the symbol estimator 113.s produces initial symbol estimates, which are input to a first interference suppression unit (ICU) 104.1 of a sequence of ICUs 104.1-104.M.

(25) ICU 104.1 mitigates intra-channel and/or inter-channel interference in the estimates in order to produce improved symbol estimates. Successive use of ICUs 104.2-104.M further improves the symbol estimates. The ICUs 104.1-104.M may comprise distinct units, or a single unit configured to perform each iteration.

(26) FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a Rake receiver, such as RAKE receiver 101.a. One of a plurality of processors 201.1-201.B is associated with each base station. For example, processor 201.s associated with an s.sup.th base station comprises a plurality L of time-advance modules 202.1-202.L configured to advance the received signal in accordance with L multipath time offsets. Weighting modules 203.1-203.L provide corresponding maximal-ratio combining weights .sub.a,s,l to the time-advanced signals, and a combiner 204 combines the weighted signals to produce an output for the a.sup.th antenna

(27) $\begin{array}{cc}{y}_{a,s}^{\mathrm{mrc}}\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{E_s}}\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{}_{a,s,l}^{*}{y}_a\left(t-{}_{a,s,l}\right),\mathrm{where}{E}_s=\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{.Math.{}_{a,s,l}.Math.}^2.& \mathrm{Equation}2\end{array}$

(28) FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary constituent-signal analyzer, such as constituent-signal analyzer 102.s shown in FIG. 1. A combiner 301 for a given base station sums the signals over the plurality A of antennas to produce a combined signal for base station s over all paths and all antennas
y.sub.s.sup.mrc(t)=.sub.a=1.sup.Ay.sub.a,s.sup.mrc(t).Equation 3

(29) The combined signal is resolved onto subchannel code waveforms by a plurality K of despreading modules, comprising K code-waveform multipliers 302.1-302.K and integrators 303.1-303.K, to give

(30) $\begin{array}{cc}{q}_{s,k}\frac{1}{E_s}{}_0^T{u}_{s,k}^{*}\left(t\right)y_s^{\mathrm{mrc}}\left(t\right)dt& \mathrm{Equation}4\end{array}$
as a RAKE/Combine/De-Spread output for the k.sup.th subchannel of base stations. A column vector of these outputs is denoted
q.sub.s=[q.sub.s,1 q.sub.s,2 . . . q.sub.s,K.sub.s].sup.TEquation 5
for base station s, where the superscript T denotes matrix transpose. Each q.sub.s,k is processed by one of a plurality of symbol estimators 304.1-304.K to produce
{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[0]=Estimate Symbol {q.sub.s,k},Equation 6
where the superscript [0] indicates the initial symbol estimate produced by front-end processing. Symbol estimators 304.1-304.K may include mixed-decision symbol estimators described in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/736,204, or other types of symbol estimators. An output vector of symbol estimates for base station s may be formed as
{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[0]=[{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,1.sup.[0] {circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,2.sup.[0] . . . {circumflex over (b)}. . . .sub.s,K.sub.s.sup.[0]].sup.T.

(31) It should be appreciated that one or more of the functions described with respect to FIG. 3 may be implemented on discrete-time sequences generated by sampling (or filtering and sampling) continuous waveforms. More specifically, time advances (or delays) of waveforms become shifts by an integer number of samples in discrete-time sequences, and integration becomes summation.

(32) FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a functional embodiment of an ICU, such as one of the ICUs 104.1-104.M. Similar ICU embodiments are described in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/736,204 for a system with a single receive antenna. However, the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 conditions a plurality of received antenna signals for a parallel bank of ICUs and conditions ICU outputs prior to making symbol estimates. Symbol estimates for a plurality of sources are input to the ICU and weighted 401.1-401.B according to perceived merits of the symbol estimates. Any of the soft-weighting methods described in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/736,204 may be employed. The weighting of a k.sup.th subchannel of base station s is expressed by
.sub.s,k.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i]Equation 7
where {circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i] is the input symbol estimate, .sub.s,k.sup.[i] is its weighting factor, and superscript [i] represents the output of the i.sup.th ICU. The superscript [0] represents the output of front-end processing prior to the first ICU. The symbol estimates may be multiplexed (e.g., concatenated) 402 into a single column vector

(33) ${\underset{\_}{\hat{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}={\left[\begin{array}{cccc}{\left({\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}_1^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^T& {\left({\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}_2^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^T& \mathrm{.Math.}& {\left({\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}_B^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^T\end{array}\right]}^T$
such that the weighted symbol estimates are given by .sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i], where .sup.[i] is a diagonal matrix containing the weighting factors along its main diagonal. The weighted symbol estimates are processed by a synthesizer used to synthesize 403.1-403.A constituent signals for each antenna. For each antenna, a synthesized signal represents a noise-free signal that would have been observed at antennas a with the base stations transmitting the weighted symbol estimates .sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i] over the multipath channels between base stations 1 through B and the mobile receiver.

(34) For each antenna, a subtraction module performs interference suppression 404.1-404.A on the constituent signals to reduce the amount of intra-channel and inter-channel interference. The interference-suppressed constituents are processed via per-antenna RAKE processing and combining 405.1-405.A to produce combined signals. The combined signals are organized by base station, combined across antennas, resolved onto the subchannel code waveforms, and processed by symbol estimators 406.1-406.B. The terms {circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i+1] denote the estimated symbol for the k.sup.th subchannel of base stations after processing by the (i+1).sup.th ICU.

(35) FIG. 5a illustrates an apparatus configured for generating multipath finger constituent signals and FIG. 5b shows an apparatus configured for generating subchannel constituents. A plurality of processors 501.1-501.B is configured for processing signals received from each base station. For an s.sup.th base station, a plurality K.sub.s of multipliers 502.1-502.K scales each code waveform with a corresponding weighted symbol estimate to produce a plurality of estimated transmit signals, which are combined by combiner 503 to produce a superposition signal
.sub.k=0.sup.K.sup.s.sup.1.sub.s,k.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i]u.sub.s,k(t)Equation 8

(36) A multipath channel emulator comprising path-delay modules 504.1-504.L and path-gain modules 505.1-505L produces multipath finger constituent signals expressed by
{tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,l.sup.[i](t)=.sub.a,s,l.sub.k=0.sup.K.sup.s.sup.1.sub.s,k.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i]u.sub.s,k(t.sub.a,s,l),Equation 9
where {tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,l.sup.[i] is the l.sup.th finger constituent for the channel between base station s and antenna a.

(37) FIG. 5b shows an apparatus configured for generating subchannel constituents. For a particular antenna a, a processor 510.1-510.B is configured for processing signals received from each base station. Within each base station processor 510.1-510.B, a plurality of processors 511.1-511.K are configured for processing each subchannel. Each subchannel processor 511.1-511.K comprises a multiplier 512 that scales a k.sup.th code waveform with a corresponding weighted symbol estimate to produce an estimated transmit signal, which is processed by a multipath channel emulator comprising path delay modules 513.1-513.L path-gain modules 514.1-514.L, and a combiner of the multiple paths 515 to produce
{tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,l.sup.[i](t).sub.s,k.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i].sub.l=0.sup.L.sup.a,s.sub.a,s,lu.sub.s,k(t.sub.a,s,l),Equation 10
which is the synthesized constituent signal for the k.sup.th subchannel of base station s at the a.sup.th antenna of the mobile. Note that while Equation 9 and Equation 10 both show a signal with a three-parameter subscript for their left-hand sides, they are different signals; the subscript l (as in Equation 9) will be reserved for a finger constituent and the subscript k (as in Equation 10) will be reserved for a subchannel constituent.

(38) FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an apparatus configured for performing interference suppression on synthesized constituent signals for each antenna. Since, the constituent signals for each antenna a may comprise multipath finger constituents or subchannel constituents. The index j{1, . . . , J.sub.a,s} is introduced, where

(39) $J_{a,s}=\{\begin{array}{cc}{L}_{a,s}& \mathrm{for}\mathrm{finger}\mathrm{constituents}\\ K_s& \mathrm{for}\mathrm{subchannel}\mathrm{constituents}\end{array}$
A first processor 600 comprises a plurality B of subtractive suppressors 601.1-601.B configured for processing constituent signals relative to each of a plurality B of base stations.

(40) Suppressor 601.s is illustrated with details that may be common to the other suppressors 601.1-601.B. A combiner 602 sums the constituent signals to produce a synthesized received signal associated with base station s, {tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s.sup.[i](t).sub.j=0.sup.J.sup.a,s{tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,j.sup.[i], where {tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,j.sup.[i] is the j.sup.th constituent finger or subchannel signal on the a.sup.th antenna for base station s.

(41) A second processor 610 comprises a combiner 611 configured for combining the synthesized received signals across base stations to produce a combined synthesized receive signal {tilde over (y)}.sub.a.sup.[i](t)=.sub.s=1.sup.B{tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s.sup.[i] corresponding to the a.sup.th antenna. A subtraction module 612 produces a signal from the difference between the combined synthesized receive signal and the actual received signal to create a residual signal y.sub.a(t){tilde over (y)}.sub.a.sup.[i](t). A step size scaling module 613 scales the residual signal with a complex stabilizing step size .sub.a.sup.[i] 613 to give a scaled residual signal .sub.a.sup.[i](y.sub.a(t){tilde over (y)}.sub.a.sup.[i](t)). The scaled residual signal is returned to the suppressors 601.1-601.B in the first processor 601 where combiners, such as combiners 603.1-603.J in the suppressor 601.s add the scaled residual signal to the constituent signals to produce a set of interference-suppressed constituents expressed by
z.sub.a,s,j.sup.[i](t){tilde over (y)}.sub.a,s,l.sup.[i](t)+.sub.a.sup.[i](y.sub.a (t){tilde over (y)}.sub.a.sup.[i](t))Equation 11
for an interference-suppressed j.sup.th constituent finger or subchannel signal on the a.sup.th antenna for base station s. The term .sub.a.sup.[i] may be evaluated as shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932, which describes calculating a step size for a single receive antenna. In one embodiment the same step size may be employed for all antennas, meaning .sub.a.sup.[i]=.sup.[i] for all a.

(42) FIG. 7a is a block diagram of an apparatus configured for performing RAKE processing and combining 405.1-405.A on the interference-suppressed constituent signals for each antenna. Each of a plurality B of Rake processors 701.1-701.B is configured for processing finger constituents for each base station. Processor 701.s shows components that are common to all of the processors 701.1-701.B. A plurality L of time-advance modules 702.1-702.L advance finger signal inputs by multipath time shifts. Scaling modules 703.1-703L scale the time-shifted inputs by complex channel gains, and the resulting scaled signals are summed 704 to yield the maximal ratio combined (MRC) output

(43) $\begin{array}{cc}{z}_{a,s}^{\mathrm{mrc},\left[i\right]}\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{E_s}}\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{}_{a,s,l}^{*}{z}_{a,s,l}\left(t-{}_{a,s,l}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}12\end{array}$
associated with antenna a and base station s,

(44) In FIG. 7b, Rake processors 710.1-710.B may each comprise a combiner 711 configured for summing the subchannel constituent signals, a plurality L of time-advance modules 712.1-712.L configured for advancing the sum by multipath time offsets, scaling modules 713.1-713.L configured for scaling the sum by corresponding multipath channel gains, and a combiner 714 configured for summing the scaled signals to produce the MRC output

(45) $\begin{array}{cc}{z}_{a,s}^{\mathrm{mrc},\left[i\right]}\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{E_s}}\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{}_{a,s,l}^{*}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K_s}{.Math.}}{z}_{a,s,k}\left(t-{}_{a,s,l}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}13\end{array}$
associated with antenna a and base station s.

(46) FIG. 8 shows an apparatus configured for performing the steps 406.1-406.B shown in FIG. 4 to produce the updated symbol estimates. Each of a plurality B of processors 801.1-801.B is configured for processing the MRC outputs. Processor 801.s shows details that are common to all of the processors 801.1-801.B.

(47) For each base station, the MRC signals for antennas are summed 802 to form the overall MRC signal
z.sub.s.sup.mrc,[i](t).sub.a=1.sup.Az.sub.a,s.sup.mrc,[i](t),Equation 14
which is resolved by code multipliers 803.1-803.K and integrators 804.1-804.K onto the subchannel code waveforms. Symbol estimators 805.1-805.K are employed for producing symbol estimates, such as mixed-decision symbol estimates as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932.

(48) Because of the linear nature of many of the ICU components, alternative embodiments of the invention may comprise similar components employed in a different order of operation without affecting the overall functionality. In one embodiment, antenna combining and de-spreading may be performed prior to interference suppression, such as illustrated in FIG. 9.

(49) FIG. 9a illustrates a plurality of processing blocks 901.1-901.B configured for processing constituent finger or sub-channel signals received from each of a plurality of base stations. The constituent signals are subtracted from the received signal on antenna a by a subtraction module 902 to produce a residual signal. The residual signal is processed by a RAKE 903.1-903.L and maximal ratio combiner (comprising weighting modules 904.1-904.L and an adder 905) to produce an error signal e.sub.a,s.sup.[i](t) for antenna a and base station s.

(50) In FIG. 9b, each of a plurality of processing blocks 911.1-911.B is configured to combine the error signals produced by the apparatus shown in FIG. 9a. In processing block 911.s, a combiner 912 combines the error signals corresponding to the s.sup.th base station across the antennas to produce e.sub.s.sup.[i](t), the error signal for base station s. Despreaders comprising code multipliers 913.1-913.K and integrators 914.1-914.K resolve the error signal e.sub.s.sup.[i](t) onto code waveforms of subchannels associated with the s.sup.th base station.

(51) The output for the k.sup.th subchannel of base station s is .sub.0.sup.Tu.sub.k*(t)e.sub.s.sup.[i](t)dt, which is equal to q.sub.s,k{tilde over (q)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i], where q.sub.s,k is defined in Equation 4, and

(52) ${\tilde{q}}_{s,k}^{\left[i\right]}=\frac{1}{E_s}\underset{a=1}{\overset{A}{.Math.}}{}_0^T{u}_k^{*}\left(t\right)\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{}_{a,s,l}^{*}\underset{j=1}{\overset{J_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{\tilde{y}}_{a,s,j}\left(t-{}_{a,s,l}\right)dt$
For each base station, the values q.sub.s,k and {tilde over (q)}.sub.s,k.sup.[i] may be stacked into a vector over the subchannel index k to form q.sub.s{tilde over (q)}.sub.s.sup.[i]. These likewise may be stacked into a single vector over the base station index s to give q{tilde over (q)}.sup.[i]. This quantity may also be determined explicitly using a matrix multiplication.

(53) FIG. 9c illustrates a final step of an interference-suppression process. A stabilizing step size module 921 scales the difference q{tilde over (q)}.sup.[i] by a stabilizing step size .sup.[i], and the result is added 923 to the weighted input vector .sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i] after being multiplied 922 by implementation matrix F to produce a vector sum. The value of the implementation matrix F depends on whether finger or subchannel constituents are used. A symbol estimator 924 produces symbol estimates for each element of the vector sum.

(54) An explicit implementation of an ICU is illustrated in FIG. 10. The input symbol estimates are weighted 1000 and multiplied by a matrix R 1001. The resulting product is subtracted 1002 from front-end vector q and scaled with the stabilizing step size .sup.[i] by a stabilizing step size module 1003. The resulting scaled signal is summed 1004 with weighted symbol estimates multiplied 1005 by the implementation matrix F to produce a vector sum. A symbol estimator 1006 makes decisions on the vector sum.

(55) Matrix R is the correlation matrix for all subchannels at the receiver after combining across antennas. It may be evaluated by
R=.sub.a=1.sup.AR.sub.aEquation 15
where R.sub.a is the correlation matrix for all subchannels at the a.sup.th antenna, and it may be determined as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932 for a single antenna receiver. The matrix F is either the identity matrix when subchannel constituent signals are employed or the correlation matrix for all subchannels at the transmitter(s) when finger constituent signals are used, such as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932. This functionality may be represented by the one-step matrix-update equation
{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i+1]=(.sup.[i](qR.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i])+F.sup.[i]{circumflex over (b)}.sup.[i]), Equation 16
where () represents any function that returns a symbol estimate for each element of its argument (including, for example, any of the mixed-decision symbol estimation functions described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932) and all other quantities as previously described.

(56) The stabilizing step size .sup.[i] may take any of the forms described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932 that depend on the correlation matrix R, the implementation matrix F, and the weighting matrix .sup.[i]. Two of these forms .sup.[i] are implicitly calculable, such as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932 for a single receive antenna.

(57) FIG. 11a illustrates a method for calculating a stabilizing step size when multiple receive antennas are employed. Preliminary processing 1101.1-1101.A for each antenna provides for RAKE processing, combining, and de-spreading 1102 on the received signal, and RAKE processing, combining, and de-spreading 1103 on the synthesized received signal and produces 1113 a difference signal. In an alternative embodiment for the preliminary processing 1101.1-1101.A shown in FIG. 11b, a difference signal calculated from the received signal and the synthesized received signal undergoes RAKE processing, combining, and de-spreading 1110.a.

(58) The difference-signal vector corresponding to the a.sup.th antenna is denoted by .sub.a.sup.[i]. The difference-signal vectors for all of the antennas are summed to produce a sum vector .sup.[i]. A sum of the square magnitudes 1105 of the elements of the sum vector (i.e., .sup.[i].sup.2) provides a numerator of a ratio from which the stabilizing step size is evaluated. The elements of .sup.[i] are used as transmit symbols in order to synthesize 1106 received signals for each antenna. Synthesized received signals are expressed as

(59) $\underset{s=1}{\overset{B}{.Math.}}\underset{l=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{}_{a,s,l}^{*}\underset{k=1}{\overset{K_s}{.Math.}}{}_{s,k}^{\left[i\right]}{u}_{s,k}\left(t-{}_{a,s,l}\right)$
for antenna a, where .sub.s,k.sup.[i] is the k.sup.th element of .sup.[i]. An integral of the square magnitude of each synthesized signal is calculated 1108.1-1108.A and summed 1109 to produce the denominator of the ratio. The ratio of the numerator and the denominator gives the first version of the step size .sup.[i].

(60) FIG. 11c shows an implicit evaluation of the step size in accordance with another embodiment of the invention. The denominator of the ratio used to calculate the stabilizing step size is determined by weighting 1150 the vector .sup.[i] by soft weights (such as contained in the diagonal matrix .sup.[i]). The elements of the resulting weighted vector are used to produce 1151 synthesized received signals for all of the antennas. Integrals of the square magnitudes of the synthesized received signals are calculated 1152.1-1152.A and summed 1153 to provide the denominator.

(61) The corresponding numerator is calculated by scaling 1154 symbol estimates produced at the i.sup.th iteration by the square of the soft weights (as contained in the diagonal matrix (.sup.[i]).sup.2). The resulting scaled vector is used to synthesize 1155 received signals for all of the antennas. The synthesized signals and the received signals are processed by a parallel bank of processors 1156.1-1156.A, each corresponding to a particular antenna. The functionality of each processor 1156.1-1156.A may be equivalent to the processor 1101.a shown in FIG. 11a. The vector outputs of the processors 1156.1-1156.A are summed 1157, and the numerator is produced from the inner product 1158 of the sum vector with the weighted vector.

(62) Explicit versions of both versions of the step size are given, respectively, by

(63) $\begin{array}{cc}{}^{\left[i\right]}=\frac{{\left(\underset{\_}{q}-\mathrm{RF}{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^H\left(\underset{\_}{q}-\mathrm{RF}{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}{{\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^H\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}\mathrm{and}& \mathrm{Equation}17\\ {}^{\left[i\right]}=\frac{{\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}F{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^H{}^{\left[i\right]}\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}{{\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^H{\left({}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}^{H}R{}^{\left[i\right]}\left(\underset{\_}{q}-R{}^{\left[i\right]}{\widehat{\underset{\_}{b}}}^{\left[i\right]}\right)}& \mathrm{Equation}18\end{array}$
wherein all quantities shown are as previously defined.

(64) Another form of the step size in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932 depends only on the path gains, and may be generalized to multiple receive antennas according to

(65) 0$\begin{array}{cc}{}^{\left[i\right]}==\max \left\{C,\frac{{\max }_{s,l}\underset{a=1}{\overset{A}{.Math.}}{.Math.{}_{a,s,l}.Math.}^p}{\underset{a=1}{\overset{A}{.Math.}}\underset{s=1}{\overset{B}{.Math.}}\underset{i=1}{\overset{L_{a,s}}{.Math.}}{.Math.{}_{a,s,l}.Math.}^p}\right\},& \mathrm{Equation}19\end{array}$
where .sup.[i] is fixed for every ICU and C and p are non-negative constants.

(66) Embodiments of the invention are also applicable to the reverse-link, such as described for the single receive antenna in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/451,932. The primary difference (when compared to the forward-link) is that subchannels from distinct transmitters experience different multipath channels and, thus, the receiver must accommodate each subchannel with its own RAKE/Combiner/De-Spreader, and channel emulation must take into account that, in general, every subchannel sees its own channel. Such modifications are apparent to those knowledgeable in the art.

(67) Embodiments of the invention may be realized in hardware or software and there are several modifications that can be made to the order of operations and structural flow of the processing. Those skilled in the art should recognize that method and apparatus embodiments described herein may be implemented in a variety of ways, including implementations in hardware, software, firmware, or various combinations thereof. Examples of such hardware may include Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), general-purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and/or other circuitry. Software and/or firmware implementations of the invention may be implemented via any combination of programming languages, including Java, C, C++, Matlab, Verilog, VHDL, and/or processor specific machine and assembly languages.

(68) Computer programs (i.e., software and/or firmware) implementing the method of this invention may be distributed to users on a distribution medium such as a SIM card, a USB memory interface, or other computer-readable memory adapted for interfacing with a consumer wireless terminal. Similarly, computer programs may be distributed to users via wired or wireless network interfaces. From there, they will often be copied to a hard disk or a similar intermediate storage medium. When the programs are to be run, they may be loaded either from their distribution medium or their intermediate storage medium into the execution memory of a wireless terminal, configuring an onboard digital computer system (e.g. a microprocessor) to act in accordance with the method of this invention. All these operations are well known to those skilled in the art of computer systems.

(69) The functions of the various elements shown in the drawings, including functional blocks labeled as modules may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, as well as hardware capable of executing software in association with appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the functions may be performed by a single dedicated processor, by a shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of the term processor or module should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor OSP hardware, read-only memory (ROM) for storing software, random access memory (RAM), and non-volatile storage. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Similarly, the function of any component or device described herein may be carried out through the operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique being selectable by the implementer as more specifically understood from the context.

(70) The method and system embodiments described herein merely illustrate particular embodiments of the invention. It should be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements, which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are intended to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention. This disclosure and its associated references are to be construed as applying without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.