Frequency domain joint detection for wireless communication systems

1. A method for joint detection of data symbols in a frequency domain, the method comprising:

receiving data;

converting the data into parallel data by a serial-to-parallel converter;

performing a fast Fourier transform on the parallel data to convert the parallel data to frequency domain data by a fast Fourier transform processor; and

performing frequency domain joint detection on the frequency domain data to obtain the data symbols of users jointly in a frequency domain, wherein users are assigned a plurality of subcarriers and a spreading code with a spreading factor equal to the number of subcarriers so that user data is spread with the spreading code and mapped to the subcarriers, and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subcarriers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein users are assigned a spreading code with a spreading factor equal to a total number of subcarriers in a subset, and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subcarriers.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein users are assigned spreading codes with variable spreading factors.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein users are assigned a subset of subcarriers and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subset of subcarriers.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein users are assigned spreading codes with variable spreading factors.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein available subcarriers are divided into multiple subsets of subcarriers, each subset of subcarriers is further divided into multiple partitions, each user is assigned subcarriers in a partition, and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subcarriers in the partition.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the spreading code is at least one of a Hadamard code, a spread complex quadratic sequence (SCQS) code, generalized chirp-like (GCL) sequences, Newman phase code and a polyphase code.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the frequency domain joint detection is performed based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) criteria.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the data is received using multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA).

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the data is received using spread orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA).

11. A receiver configured to perform joint detection of data symbols in a frequency domain, the receiver comprising:

a serial-to-parallel (S/P) converter for converting received data into parallel data;

a fast Fourier transform processor for performing a fast Fourier transform on the parallel data to convert the parallel data to frequency domain data; and

a frequency domain joint detector for performing frequency domain joint detection on the frequency domain data to obtain the data symbols of users jointly in a frequency domain, wherein users are assigned a plurality of subcarriers and a spreading code with a spreading factor equal to the number of subcarriers so that user data is spread with the spreading code and mapped to the subcarriers, and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subcarriers.

12. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the users are assigned a spreading code with a spreading factor equal to total number of subcarriers in a subset, and the frequency domain joint detector performs the frequency domain joint detection on the subcarriers.

13. The receiver of claim 12 wherein the users are assigned spreading codes with variable spreading factors.

14. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the users are assigned a subset of subcarriers and the frequency domain joint detector performs the frequency domain joint detection on the subset of subcarriers.

15. The receiver of claim 14 wherein the users are assigned spreading codes with variable spreading factors.

16. The receiver of claim 11 wherein available subcarriers are divided into multiple subsets of subcarriers, each subset of subcarriers is further divided into multiple partitions, each of the users is assigned subcarriers in a partition, and the frequency domain joint detector performs the frequency domain joint detection on the subcarriers in the partition.

17. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the spreading code is at least one of a Hadamard code, a spread complex quadratic sequence (SCQS) code, generalized chirp-like (GCL) sequences, Newman phase code and a polyphase code.

18. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the frequency domain joint detector performs the frequency domain joint detection based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) criteria.

19. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the receiver is a multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) receiver.

20. The receiver of claim 11 wherein the receiver is a spread orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) receiver.

21. An integrated circuit (IC) configured to perform joint detection of data symbols in a frequency domain, the IC comprising:

a serial-to-parallel (S/P) converter for converting received data into parallel data;

a fast Fourier transform processor for performing a fast Fourier transform on the parallel data to convert the parallel data to frequency domain data; and

a frequency domain joint detector for performing frequency domain joint detection on the frequency domain data to obtain the data symbols of users jointly in a frequency domain, wherein users are assigned a spreading code with a spreading factor equal to a preconfigured number of subcarriers so that user data is spread with the spreading code and mapped to the subcarriers, and the frequency domain joint detection is performed on the subcarriers.