DEFERRED DECORRELATING DECISION-FEEDBACK DETECTOR FOR SUPERSATURATED COMMUNICATIONS

The present invention provides an efficient means of estimating symbols transmitted in a multi-user environment in overloaded or super-saturated conditions by employing a deferred decorrelating decision feedback detector. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises a parameter estimation unit, filter bank, overloaded whitener and decision tree-based hypothesis testing. Parameter estimation defines the matched filter bank, whitening filters, and the terms of the hypothesis testing module. The whitening filter partially decouples co-channel interference and partially whitens the noise. The decision tree approach defers decisions until more evidence is accumulated and is a generalization that encompasses the jointly optimal maximum likelihood detector as well as the simpler decision feedback detectors.