Iterative interference suppressor for wireless multiple-access systems with multiple receive antennas

A wireless terminal, comprising:

• a plurality of antennas configured to receive multiple-access communication signals from a plurality of transmission sources;
• a plurality of RAKE receivers configured to separate the multiple-access communication signals into a plurality of constituent signals for each transmission source;
• a computer-readable memory with stored firmware;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the stored firmware of the computer-readable memory, wherein the processor, in response to executing the stored firmware, is configured to:
• generate a plurality of initial symbol estimates from the plurality of constituent signals;
• generate, from the plurality of initial symbol estimates, a synthesized received signal for each antenna of the plurality of antenna;
• subtract the respective synthesized received signal from the multiple-access communication signal received by each antenna to obtain a plurality of residual signals for the plurality of antenna;
• combine the plurality of residual signals with the plurality of constituent signals to obtain interference-suppressed constituent signals;
• and
• generate a plurality of updated symbol estimates based on the interference-suppressed constituent signals.