In this paper, we evaluate the performance of single- and multi-antenna multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) downlink (base station to mobile terminal) systems in single- and multi-cell environments. We first propose a minimum mean square error (MMSE) filter with a Gaussian approximation for a single input single output (SISO) MC-CDMA downlink system. Then, we apply it to a SIMO (single input multiple output) system with a conventional turbo coding. Furthermore, we compare the performance of SISO (11) and SIMO (12) MC-CDMA systems with that of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) (22) system employing space-time turbo coded modulation (STTuCM) in a multi-cell environment with 7 cells by computer simulation. Based on the computer simulation results, it is found that the considered MIMO system can achieve twofold capacity with the same transmission power in the multi-cell environment.

The localization algorithm based on the double-thresholding (LAD) method was originally proposed for detecting and localizing narrowband (NB) signals with respect to the search bandwidth. Its weakness is that the localized signal is often split into several parts, especially when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low. This may lead to the illusion of unoccupied frequencies in the middle of the signals. In this paper, an extension of the LAD method, namely the two-dimensional LAD (2-D LAD), is proposed to solve that problem. In addition to offering low computational complexity, the proposed method is able to operate at lower SNR values than the original 1-D LAD method.