Minimum Probability of Error for Asynchronous Gaussian Multiple-Access Channels

Consider a Gaussian multiple-access channel shared by K users who transmit asynchronously independent data streams by modulating a set of assigned signal waveforms. The uncoded probability of error achievable by optimum multiuser detectors is investigated. It is shown that the K-user maximum-likelihood sequence detector consists of a bank of single-user matched filters followed by a Viterbi algorithm whose complexity per binary decision is O(2^K). The upper bound analysis of this detector follows an approach based on the decomposition of error sequences. The issues of convergence and tightness of the bounds are examined, and it is shown that the minimum multiuser error probability is equivalent in the low-noise region to that of a single-user system with reduced power. These results show that the proposed multiuser detectors afford important performance gains over conventional single-user systems, in which the signal constellation carries the entire burden of complexity required to achieve a given performance level.