Polarisation diversity reception of nonorthogonal multipulse signals in multiuser Rayleigh fading channels

The use of polarisation diversity techniques in conjunction with nonorthogonal multipulse modulation is considered for a multiuser communication system operating on a single-path Rayleigh fading channel. Indeed, in mobile environments multiple reflections and scattering phenomena introduce polarisation rotation of the transmitted power, and polarisation diversity is a suitable means of taking advantage of this effect. Several different two-stage receiving structures, each one relying on different amounts of a priori information on the channel status, are introduced. The performance of the proposed detectors is analysed through Monte Carlo counting techniques. It is seen that these receivers yield a remarkable performance improvement with respect to those not exploiting polarisation diversity.