The present invention relates generally to communications systems, and more specifically to a space diversity receiver for TDMA (time division multiple access) burst signals which are likely to be affected by intersymbol interference due to multipath reception.
Multipath distortion is the result of simultaneous reception of a signal direct from the point of transmission and delayed signals reflected off buildings and the like. Decision-feedback equalization and most likelihood sequence estimation techniques are currently receiving attention for correcting errors in high-speed burst signals on multipath reception as discussed in Proakis, "Digital Communications", McGraw-Hill, 1983. Space diversity reception for burst signals is also discussed in William C. Y. Lee, "Mobile Communication Engineering", McGraw-Hill, 1982. These techniques are not successful for applications in which a substantial amount of delay is involved in multipath reception. Space diversity reception for burst signals using decision-feedback equalization is described in "Adaptive Equalization of the Slow Fading Channel", IEEE Transactions on Communications, Peter Monsen, Vol. COM-22, No. 8, August 1974. However, the shortcoming of this approach is that practical realizations would result in circuitry which is too complex to implement receivers at a moderate cost.