A software radio architecture for linear multiuser detection

The integration of multimedia ser,ices over wireless channels calls for pro vision of variable quality of service (QoS) requirements. While radio resou rce management algorithms (such as power control and call admission control ) can provide certain levels of variability in QoS, an alternate approach i s to use reconfigurable radio architectures to provide diverse QoS guarante es. In this paper, we outline a novel reconfigurable architecture for linea r multiuser detection, thereby providing a wide range of bit error rate (BE R) requirements amongst the constituent receivers of the reconfigurable arc hitecture. Specifically, we focus on achieving this dynamic reconfiguration via a software radio implementation of linear multiuser receivers. Using a unified framework for achieving this reconfiguration, we partition functio nality into two core technologies [field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) an d digital signal processor (DSP) devices] based on processing speed require ments. We present experimental results on the performance and reconfigurabi lity of the software radio architecture as well as the impact of fixed poin t arithmetic (due to hardware constraints).