POST PROCESSING OF SPREADING CODES IN A MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

摘要

In mobile telecommunications systems, such as UMTS, user communications can be transmitted in parallel within a single timeslot by spreading the different user communications amongst a plurality of orthogonal spreading codes. Each spreading code has a characteristic spreading factor. The communications transmitted in each timeslot are joint detected and de-spread into the original user communications by a joint detection algorithm. There is provided a method of post-processing the results of the joint detection algorithm when the spreading factors are unknown. The method of post-processing operates without the need to apply the joint detection algorithm more than once. Consequently, spreading codes with different spreading factors can be used in one timeslot.