Milstein, L.B. & Simon, M.K.

Spread Spectrum Communications

Mobile Communications Handbook
Ed. Suthan S. Suthersan
Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 1999
c 1999byCRCPressLLC
Spread Spectrum Communications
LaurenceB. Milstein
University of California
Marvin K. Simon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
11.1 ABrief History
11.2 WhySpreadSpectrum?
11.3 BasicConceptsandTerminology
11.4 SpreadSpectrumTechniques
Direct SequenceModulation

FrequencyHoppingModula-
tion

TimeHoppingModulation

HybridModulations
11.5 Applicationsof SpreadSpectrum
Military

Commercial
DeningTerms
References
11.1 A Brief History
Spreadspectrum(SS) hasitsorigininthemilitaryarenawherethefriendlycommunicator is1) sus-
ceptibleto detection/interception bytheenemyand2) vulnerableto intentionallyintroducedun-
friendlyinterference(jamming). Communicationsystemsthat employspreadspectrumtoreduce
thecommunicators detectability and combat theenemy-introduced interferencearerespectively
referredtoaslowprobabilityofintercept(LPI) andantijam(AJ) communicationsystems. With
thechangeinthecurrent worldpolitical situationwhereintheU.S. Department of Defense(DOD)
hasreduced itsemphasison thedevelopment and acquisition of newcommunication systemsfor
theoriginal purposes, ahost of newcommercial applicationsfor SShasevolved, particularlyinthe
areaof cellular mobilecommunications. Thisshift frommilitarytocommercial applicationsof SS
hasdemonstratedthat thebasicconceptsthat makeSStechniquessouseful inthemilitarycanalso
beput to practical peacetimeuse. In thenext section, wegiveasimpledescription of thesebasic
conceptsusingtheoriginal militaryapplicationasthebasisof explanation. Theextensionof these
conceptstothementionedcommercial applicationswill betreatedlater oninthechapter.
11.2 WhySpreadSpectrum?
Spreadspectrumisacommunicationtechniquewhereinthetransmittedmodulationisspread(in-
creased) inbandwidthprior totransmissionover thechannel andthendespread(decreased) inband-
widthbythesameamount at thereceiver. If it werenot for thefact that thecommunicationchannel
introducessomeformof narrowband(relativeto thespreadbandwidth) interference, thereceiver
performancewouldbetransparenttothespreadinganddespreadingoperations(assumingthatthey
areidentical inversesof eachother). Thatis, after despreadingthereceivedsignal wouldbeidentical
c 1999byCRCPressLLC
tothetransmittedsignal prior tospreading. Inthepresenceof narrowbandinterference, however,
thereisasignicant advantagetoemployingthespreading/despreadingproceduredescribed. The
reasonfor thisisasfollows. Sincetheinterferenceisintroducedafter thetransmittedsignal isspread,
then, whereasthedespreadingoperationat thereceiver shrinksthedesiredsignal backtoitsoriginal
bandwidth, at thesametimeit spreadstheundesiredsignal (interference) inbandwidthbythesame
amount, thusreducingitspower spectral density. This, inturn, servestodiminishtheeffect of the
interferenceon thereceiver performance, which dependson theamount of interferencepower in
thedespreadbandwidth. It isindeedthisverysimpleexplanation, whichisat theheart of all spread
spectrumtechniques.
11.3 Basic ConceptsandTerminology
Todescribethisprocessanalyticallyandatthesametimeintroducesometerminologythatiscommon
inspreadspectrumparlance, weproceedasfollows. Consider acommunicator that desirestosenda
messageusingatransmittedpowerS Watts(W)ataninformationrateR
b
bits/s(bps). Byintroducing
aSSmodulation, thebandwidthof thetransmittedsignal isincreasedfromR
b
HztoW
ss
Hzwhere
W
ss
R
b
denotesthespreadspectrumbandwidth. Assumethatthechannel introduces,inaddition
to theusual thermal noise(assumed to haveasingle-sided power spectral density(PSD) equal to
N
0
W/Hz), an additiveinterference(jamming) havingpower J distributedover somebandwidth
W
J
. After despreading, thedesired signal bandwidth is onceagain nowequal to R
b
Hz and the
interferencePSDisnowN
J
= J/W
ss
. Notethat sincethethermal noiseisassumedtobewhite, i.e.,
it isuniformlydistributedover all frequencies, itsPSDisunchangedbythedespreadingoperation
and, thus, remainsequal toN
0
. Regardlessof thesignal andinterferer waveforms, theequivalent bit
energy-to-total noisespectral densityratiois, intermsof thegivenparameters,
E
b
N
t
=
E
b
N
0
+N
J
=
S/R
b
N
0
+J/W
ss
(11.1)
For most practical scenarios, thejammer limitsperformanceand, thus, theeffectsof receiver noise
inthechannel canbeignored. Thus, assumingN
J
N
0
, wecanrewriteEq. (11.1) as
E
b
N
t

=
E
b
N
J
=
S/R
b
J/W
ss
=
S
J
W
ss
R
b
(11.2)
wheretheratioJ/S isthejammer-to-signal power ratioandtheratioW
ss
/R
b
isthespreadingratio
andisdenedastheprocessinggainof thesystem. Sincetheultimateerror probabilityperformance
of thecommunicationreceiver dependsontheratioE
b
/N
J
, weseethat fromthecommunicators
viewpoint hisgoal shouldbeto minimizeJ/S (bychoiceof S) andmaximizetheprocessinggain
(bychoiceof W
ss
for agivendesiredinformationrate). Thepossiblestrategiesfor thejammer will
bediscussedinthesectiononmilitaryapplicationsdealingwithAJ communications.
11.4 SpreadSpectrumTechniques
Byfar thetwo most popular spreadingtechniquesaredirectsequence(DS) modulationand fre-
quencyhopping(FH)modulation. Inthefollowingsubsections, wepresent abrief descriptionof
each.
c 1999byCRCPressLLC
FIGURE11.1: ADS-BPSK system(complexform).
11.4.1 Direct SequenceModulation
A direct sequencemodulationc(t ) isformedbylinearlymodulatingtheoutput sequence{c
n
} of a
pseudorandomnumber generator ontoatrainof pulses, eachhavingadurationT
c
calledthechip
time. Inmathematical form,
c(t ) =

n=
c
n
p (t nT
c
) (11.3)
wherep(t ) isthebasicpulseshapeandisassumedtobeof rectangular form. Thistypeof modulation
isusuallyusedwithbinaryphase-shift-keyed(BPSK) informationsignals, whichhavethecomplex
formd(t ) exp{j (2f
c
t +
c
)}, whered(t ) isabinary-valueddatawaveformof rate1/T
b
bits/sandf
c
and
c
arethefrequencyandphaseof thedata-modulatedcarrier, respectively. Assuch, aDS/BPSK
signal isformedbymultiplyingtheBPSKsignal byc(t ) (seeFig.11.1),resultinginthereal transmitted
signal
x(t ) = Re{c(t )d(t ) exp [j (2f
c
t +
c
)]} (11.4)
SinceT
c
ischosensothat T
b
T
c
, thenrelativetothebandwidthof theBPSK informationsignal,
thebandwidthof theDS/BPSKsignal
1
iseffectivelyincreasedbytheratioT
b
/T
c
= W
ss
/2R
b
, which
is one-half thespreadingfactor or processinggain of thesystem. At thereceiver, thesumof the
transmittedDS/BPSK signal andthechannel interferenceI (t ) (asdiscussedbefore, weignorethe
presenceof theadditivethermal noise) areideallymultipliedbytheidentical DSmodulation(this
operation isknown asdespreading), whichreturnstheDS/BPSK signal to itsoriginal BPSK form
whereasthereal interferencesignal isnowthereal wideband signal Re{I (t )c(t )}. In theprevious
sentence, weusedthewordideally, whichimpliesthat thePNwaveformusedfor despreadingat the
receiver isidentical tothat usedfor spreadingat thetransmitter. Thissimpleimplicationcoversup
amultitudeof tasksthat apractical DSreceiver must perform. Inparticular, thereceiver must rst
acquirethePN waveform. That is, thelocal PN randomgenerator that generatesthePN waveform
at thereceiver usedfor despreadingmust bealigned(synchronized) to within onechipof thePN
waveformof thereceivedDS/BPSK signal. Thisisaccomplishedbyemployingsomesort of search
algorithmwhichtypicallystepsthelocal PN waveformsequentiallyintimebyafractionof achip
(e.g., half achip) andat eachpositionsearchesfor ahighdegreeof correlationbetweenthereceived
and local PN referencewaveforms. Thesearch terminates when thecorrelation exceeds agiven
threshold, whichisanindicationthat thealignment hasbeenachieved. After bringingthetwoPN
waveformsinto coarsealignment, atrackingalgorithmisemployedto maintain nealignment.
1
For theusual caseof arectangular spreadingpulsep(t ), thePSDof theDS/BPSK modulationwill have(sin x/x)
2
form
withrst zerocrossingat 1/T
c
, whichisnominallytakenasone-half thespreadspectrumbandwidthW
ss
.
c 1999byCRCPressLLC
Themost popular formsof trackingloopsarethecontinuoustimedelay-lockedloopanditstime-
multiplexedversionthetauditherloop. ItisthedifcultyinsynchronizingthereceiverPNgenerator
tosubnanosecondaccuracythatlimitsPNchipratestovaluesontheorder of hundredsof Mchips/s,
whichimpliesthesamelimitationontheDSspreadspectrumbandwidthW
ss
.
11.4.2 FrequencyHoppingModulation
A frequencyhopping(FH)modulationc(t ) isformedbynonlinearlymodulatingatrainof pulses
with asequenceof pseudorandomlygeneratedfrequencyshifts{f
n
}. In mathematical terms, c(t )
hasthecomplexform
c(t ) =

n=
exp {j (2f
n
+
n
)} p (t nT
h
) (11.5)
wherep(t ) isagain thebasic pulseshapehavingaduration T
h
, called thehoptimeand {
n
} isa
sequenceofrandomphasesassociatedwiththegenerationofthehops. FHmodulationistraditionally
usedwithmultiple-frequency-shift-keyed(MFSK) informationsignals,whichhavethecomplexform
exp{j[2(f
c
+d(t ))t ]}, whered(t ) isanM-level digital waveform(M denotesthesymbol alphabet
size) representingtheinformation frequencymodulation at arate1/T
s
symbols/s(sps). Assuch,
anFH/MFSK signal isformedbycomplexmultiplyingtheMFSK signal byc(t ) resultinginthereal
transmittedsignal
x(t ) = Re{c(t ) exp {j [2(f
c
+d(t ))t ]}} (11.6)
Inreality, c(t ) isnever generatedinthetransmitter. Rather, x(t ) isobtainedbyapplyingthesequence
of pseudorandomfrequencyshifts{f
n
} directlytothefrequencysynthesizer thatgeneratesthecarrier
frequency f
c
(seeFig. 11.2). In terms of theactual implementation, successive(not necessarily
FIGURE11.2: AnFH-MFSK system.
disjoint) k-chip segmentsof aPN sequencedriveafrequencysynthesizer, which hopsthecarrier
over 2
k
frequencies. In viewof thelargebandwidths over which thefrequency synthesizer must
operate, it isdifcult tomaintainphasecoherencefromhoptohop, whichexplainstheinclusionof
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thesequence{
n
} intheEq. (11.5) model for c(t ). Onashort termbasis, e.g., withinagivenhop,
thesignal bandwidth isidentical to that of theMFSK information modulation, which istypically
muchsmaller thanW
ss
. Ontheother hand, whenaveragedover manyhops, thesignal bandwidth
isequal to W
ss
, which can beon theorder of several GHz, i.e., an order of magnitudelarger than
that of implementableDSbandwidths. Theexact relationbetweenW
ss
, T
h
, T
s
andthenumber of
frequencyshiftsintheset {f
n
} will bediscussedshortly.
At thereceiver, thesumof thetransmittedFH/MFSK signal andthechannel interferenceI (t ) is
ideallycomplexmultipliedbytheidentical FH modulation(thisoperationisknownasdehopping),
whichreturnstheFH/MFSK signal toitsoriginal MFSK form, whereasthereal interferencesignal is
nowthewideband(intheaveragesense) signal Re{I (t )c(t )}. AnalogoustotheDScase, thereceiver
must acquireand track theFH signal so that thedehoppingwaveformisascloseto thehopping
waveformc(t ) aspossible.
FHsystemsaretraditionallyclassiedinaccordancewiththerelationshipbetweenT
h
andT
s
. Fast
frequency-hopped(FFH)systemsareonesinwhichthereexistsoneor morehopsper datasymbol,
that is, T
s
= NT
h
(N aninteger) whereasslowfrequency-hopped(SFH)systemsareonesinwhich
thereexistsmorethan onesymbol per hop, that is, T
h
= NT
s
. It iscustomaryin SSparlanceto
refer totheFH/MFSK toneof shortest durationasachip, despitethesameusagefor thePNchips
associatedwiththecodegenerator that drivesthefrequencysynthesizer. Keepingthisdistinctionin
mind, inanFFH systemwhere, asalreadystated, therearemultiplehopsper datasymbol, achipis
equal toahop. For SFH, wheretherearemultipledatasymbolsper hop, achipisequal toanMFSK
symbol. Combiningthesetwostatements, thechiprateR
c
inanFH systemisgivenbythelarger of
R
h
= 1/T
h
andR
s
= 1/T
s
and, assuch, isthehighest systemclockrate.
ThefrequencyspacingbetweentheFH/MFSK tonesisgovernedbythechiprateR
c
andis, thus,
dependent on whether theFH modulation isFFH or SFH. In particular, for SFH whereR
c
= R
s
,
thespacingbetween FH/MFSK tonesisequal to thespacingbetween theMFSK tonesthemselves.
For noncoherent detection(themost commonlyencounteredinFH/MFSK systems), theseparation
of theMFSK symbolsnecessaryto provideorthogonality
2
isan integer multipleof R
s
. Assuming
theminimumspacing, i.e., R
s
, theentirespreadspectrumbandisthen partitionedinto atotal of
N
t
= W
ss
/R
s
= W
ss
/R
c
equallyspaced FH tones. Onearrangement, which isbyfar themost
common, istogrouptheseN
t
tonesintoN
b
= N
t
/M contiguous, nonoverlappingbands, eachwith
bandwidthMR
s
= MR
c
;seeFig. 11.3a. AssumingsymmetricMFSKmodulationaroundthecarrier
frequency, thenthecenter frequenciesof theN
b
= 2
k
bandsrepresent theset of hopcarriers, each
of whichisassignedtoagivenk-tupleof thePN codegenerator. Inthisxedarrangement, eachof
theN
t
FH/MFSK tonescorrespondstothecombinationof auniquehopcarrier (PN codek-tuple)
and auniqueMFSK symbol. Another arrangement, which provides moreprotection against the
sophisticatedinterferer (jammer), istooverlapadjacent M-arybandsbyanamount equal toR
c
; see
Fig. 11.3b. Assumingagain that thecenter frequencyof each band correspondsto apossiblehop
carrier, thensinceall but M 1 of theN
t
tonesareavailableascenter frequencies, thenumber of
hopcarriershasbeenincreasedfromN
t
/M toN
t
(M 1), whichfor N
t
M isapproximately
anincreaseinrandomnessbyafactor of M.
For FFH, whereR
c
= R
h
, thespacingbetweenFH/MFSK tonesisequal tothehoprate. Thus,
theentirespread spectrumband is partitioned into atotal of N
t
= W
ss
/R
h
= W
ss
/R
c
equally
2
AnoptimumnoncoherentMFSKdetectorconsistsofabankofenergydetectorseachmatchedtooneoftheMfrequencies
intheMFSKset. Intermsof thisstructure, thenotionof orthogonalityimpliesthatfor agiventransmittedfrequencythere
will benocrosstalk(energyspillover) inanyof theother M 1 energydetectors.
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Figure11.3a Frequencydistributionfor FH-4FSKnonoverlappingbands. Dashedlinesindicatelocationof hop
frequencies.
spacedFH tones, eachof whichisassignedtoauniquek-tupleof thePN codegenerator that drives
thefrequencysynthesizer. Sincefor FFH thereareR
h
/R
s
hopsper symbol, thenthemetricusedto
makeanoncoherent decision on aparticular symbol isobtained bysummingupR
h
/R
s
detected
chip(hop) energies, resultinginaso-callednoncoherent combiningloss.
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Figure11.3b Frequencydistributionfor FH-4FSKover-lappingbands.
11.4.3 TimeHoppingModulation
Timehopping(TH) isto spread spectrummodulation what pulseposition modulation (PPM) is
to information modulation. In particular, consider segmentingtimeinto intervalsof T
f
seconds
andfurther segment eachT
f
interval into M
T
incrementsof widthT
f
/M
T
. Assumingapulseof
maximumdurationequal toT
f
/M
T
, thenatimehoppingspreadspectrummodulationwouldtake
theform
c(t ) =

n=
p
_
t
_
n +
a
n
M
T
_
T
f
_
(11.7)
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wherea
n
denotesthepseudorandomposition(oneof M
T
uniformlyspacedlocations) of thepulse
withintheT
f
-secondinterval.
For DSandFH, wesawthatmultiplicativemodulation, thatisthetransmittedsignal istheproduct
of theSSandinformationsignals, wasthenatural choice. For TH, delaymodulationisthenatural
choice. Inparticular, aTH-SSmodulationtakestheform
x(t ) = Re{c(t d(t )) exp [j (2f
c
+
T
)]} (11.8)
whered(t ) isadigital informationmodulationat arate1/T
s
sps. Finally, thedehoppingprocedure
at thereceiver consistsof removingthesequenceof delaysintroduced by c(t ), which restoresthe
informationsignal backtoitsoriginal formandspreadstheinterferer.
11.4.4 HybridModulations
Byblendingtogetherseveral oftheprevioustypesofSSmodulation,onecanformhybridmodulations
that,dependingonthesystemdesignobjectives,canachieveabetterperformanceagainsttheinterferer
than can anyof theSSmodulationsactingalone. Onepossibilityisto multiplyseveral of thec(t )
widebandwaveforms[nowdenotedbyc
(i)
(t ) todistinguishthemfromoneanother] resultingina
SSmodulationof theform
c(t ) =

i
c
(i)
(t ) (11.9)
Suchamodulationmayembracetheadvantagesof thevariousc
(i)
(t ), whileat thesametimemiti-
gatingtheir individual disadvantages.
11.5 Applicationsof SpreadSpectrum
11.5.1 Military
Antijam(AJ)Communications
Asalreadynoted,oneofthekeyapplicationsofspreadspectrumisforantijamcommunications
in a hostile environment. The basic mechanismby which a direct sequencespreadspectrum
receiver attenuates anoisejammer was illustrated in Section 11.3. Therefore, in this section, we
will concentrateontonejamming.
Assumethereceivedsignal, denotedr(t ), isgivenby
r(t ) = Ax(t ) +I (t ) +n
w
(t ) (11.10)
wherex(t ) isgiveninEq. (11.4), A isaconstant amplitude,
I (t ) = cos (2f
c
t +) (11.11)
and n
w
(t ) is additivewhiteGaussian noise(AWGN) havingtwo-sided spectral density N
0
/2. In
Eq. (11.11), istheamplitudeof thetonejammer and isarandomphaseuniformlydistributedin
[0, 2] .
If weemploythestandardcorrelationreceiver of Fig. 11.4, it isstraightforwardtoshowthat the
nal test statisticout of thereceiver isgivenby
g(T
b
) = AT
b
+ cos
_
T
b
0
c(t ) dt +N (T
b
) (11.12)
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FIGURE11.4: Standardcorrelationreceiver.
whereN(T
b
) isthecontributiontothetest statisticduetotheAWGN. Notingthat, for rectangular
chips, wecanexpress
_
T
b
0
c(t ) dt = T
c
M

i=1
c
i
(11.13)
where
M

=
T
b
T
c
(11.14)
is one-half of theprocessinggain, it is straightforward to showthat, for agiven valueof , the
signal-to-noise-plus-interferenceratio, denotedbyS/N
total
, isgivenby
S
N
total
=
1
N
0
2E
b
+
_
J
MS
_
cos
2

(11.15)
InEq. (11.15), thejammer power is
J

=

2
2
(11.16)
andthesignal power is
S

=
A
2
2
(11.17)
If welookatthesecondterminthedenominator of Eq.(11.15), weseethattheratioJ/S isdivided
byM. Realizingthat J/S istheratioof thejammer power tothesignal power beforedespreading,
andJ/MS istheratioof thesamequantityafter despreading, weseethat, aswasthecasefor noise
jamming, thebenetof employingdirectsequencespreadspectrumsignallinginthepresenceof tone
jammingistoreducetheeffect of thejammer byanamount ontheorder of theprocessinggain.
Finally, onecanshowthat anestimateof theaverageprobabilityof error of asystemof thistype
isgivenby
P
e
=
1
2
_
2
0

_
S
N
total
_
d (11.18)
where
(x)

=
1

2
_
x

e
y
2
/2
dy (11.19)
If Eq. (11.18) isevaluatednumericallyandplotted, theresultsareasshowninFig. 11.5. It isclear
fromthisgurethat alargeinitial power advantageof thejammer canbeovercomebyasufciently
largevalueof theprocessinggain.
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FIGURE11.5: Plottedresultsof Eq. (11.18).
Low-Probabilityof Intercept (LPI)
Theoppositesideof theAJ problemisthat of LPI, that is, thedesiretohideyour signal from
detection byan intelligent adversaryso that your transmissionswill remain unnoticed and, thus,
neither jammed nor exploited in any manner. This ideaof designingan LPI systemis achieved
in avariety of ways, includingtransmittingat thesmallest possiblepower level, and limitingthe
transmission timeto asshort an interval in timeasispossible. Thechoiceof signal design isalso
important, however, andit isherethat spreadspectrumtechniquesbecomerelevant.
Thebasicmechanismisreasonablystraightforward; if westart withaconventional narrowband
signal, sayaBPSK waveformhavingaspectrumasshowninFig. 11.6a, andthenspreadit sothat its
newspectrumisasshowninFig. 11.6b, thepeakamplitudeof thespectrumafter spreadinghasbeen
reducedbyanamount ontheorder of theprocessinggainrelativetowhat it wasbeforespreading.
Indeed, asufcientlylargeprocessinggain will result in thespectrumof thesignal after spreading
fallingbelowtheambient thermal noiselevel. Thus, thereisnoeasywayfor anunintendedlistener
todeterminethat atransmissionistakingplace.
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Figure11.6a
Figure11.6b
That isnot to saythespreadsignal cannot bedetected, however, merelythat it ismoredifcult
for an adversaryto learn of thetransmission. Indeed, therearemanyformsof so-calledintercept
receiversthat arespecicallydesigned to accomplish thisverytask. Bywayof example, probably
thebest knownandsimplest toimplement isaradiometer, whichisjust adevicethat measuresthe
total power present inthereceivedsignal. Inthecaseof our intercept problem, eventhoughwehave
lowered thepower spectral densityof thetransmitted signal so that it fallsbelowthenoiseoor,
wehavenot lowereditspower (i.e., wehavemerelyspreaditspower over awider frequencyrange).
Thus, if theradiometer integratesover asufcientlylongperiodof time, it will eventuallydetermine
thepresenceof thetransmittedsignal buriedinthenoise. Thekeypoint, of course, isthat theuse
of thespreadingmakestheinterceptorstaskmuchmoredifcult, sincehehasnoknowledgeof the
spreadingcodeand, thus, cannot despreadthesignal.
11.5.2 Commercial
MultipleAccessCommunications
Fromtheperspectiveof commercial applications, probablythemost important useof spread
spectrumcommunicationsisasamultipleaccessingtechnique. Whenusedinthismanner,itbecomes
analternativetoeither frequencydivisionmultipleaccess(FDMA) or timedivisionmultipleaccess
(TDMA) and is typically referred to as either code division multiple access (CDMA) or spread
spectrummultipleaccess(SSMA).WhenusingCDMA,eachsignal inthesetisgivenitsownspreading
sequence. Asopposedto either FDMA, wherein all usersoccupydisjoint frequencybandsbut are
transmittedsimultaneouslyin time, or TDMA, wherebyall usersoccupythesamebandwidth but
transmit in disjoint intervals of time, in CDMA, all signals occupy thesamebandwidth and are
transmittedsimultaneouslyintime; thedifferent waveformsinCDMA aredistinguishedfromone
another at thereceiver bythespecicspreadingcodestheyemploy.
SincemostCDMAdetectorsarecorrelationreceivers,itisimportantwhendeployingsuchasystem
tohaveasetofspreadingsequencesthathaverelativelylow-pairwisecross-correlationbetweenanytwo
sequencesintheset. Further, therearetwofundamental typesof operationinCDMA, synchronous
andasynchronous. In theformer case, thesymbol transition timesof all of theusersarealigned;
this allows for orthogonal sequences to beused as thespreadingsequences and, thus, eliminates
interferencefromoneuser to another. Alternately, if no effort ismadeto align thesequences, the
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systemoperatesasychronously; inthislatter mode, multipleaccessinterferencelimitstheultimate
channel capacity, but thesystemdesignexhibitsmuchmoreexibility.
CDMAhasbeenof particular interestrecentlyfor applicationsinwirelesscommunications. These
applicationsincludecellularcommunications,personal communicationsservices(PCS),andwireless
local areanetworks. Thereasonfor thispopularityisprimarilyduetotheperformancethat spread
spectrumwaveformsdisplaywhentransmittedover amultipathfadingchannel.
To illustratethis idea, consider DS signalling. As longas theduration of asinglechip of the
spreadingsequenceislessthan themultipath delayspread, theuseof DSwaveformsprovidesthe
systemdesigner withoneof twooptions. First, themultipathcanbetreatedasaformof interference,
which meansthereceiver should attempt to attenuateit asmuch aspossible. Indeed, under this
condition, all of themultipathreturnsthat arriveat thereceiver withatimedelaygreater thanachip
durationfromthemultipathreturntowhichthereceiver issynchronized(usuallytherst return)
will beattenuatedbecauseof theprocessinggainof thesystem.
Alternately, themultipathreturnsthat areseparatedbymorethanachipdurationfromthemain
pathrepresentindependentlooksatthereceivedsignal andcanbeusedconstructivelytoenhancethe
overall performanceof thereceiver. Thatis, becauseall of themultipathreturnscontaininformation
regardingthedatathat isbeingsent, that informationcanbeextractedbyanappropriatelydesigned
receiver. Such a receiver, typically referred to as a RAKE receiver, attempts to resolve as many
individual multipathreturnsaspossibleandthentosumthemcoherently. Thisresultsinanimplicit
diversitygain, comparabletotheuseof explicit diversity, suchasreceivingthesignal withmultiple
antennas.
Thecondition under which thetwo optionsareavailablecan bestated in an alternatemanner.
If oneenvisions what is takingplacein thefrequency domain, it is straightforward to showthat
thecondition of thechip duration beingsmaller than themultipath delayspread isequivalent to
requiringthatthespreadbandwidthof thetransmittedwaveformexceedwhatiscalledthecoherence
bandwidthof thechannel. Thislatter quantityissimplytheinverseof themultipathdelayspread
andisameasureof therangeof frequenciesthatfadeinahighlycorrelatedmanner. Indeed, anytime
thecoherencebandwidthof thechannel islessthanthespreadbandwidthof thesignal, thechannel
issaidtobefrequencyselectivewithrespect tothesignal. Thus, weseethat totakeadvantageof DS
signallingwhen used over amultipath fadingchannel, that signal should bedesigned such that it
makesthechannel appear frequencyselective.
Inadditiontothedesirablepropertiesthatspreadspectrumsignalsdisplayovermultipathchannels,
therearetwo other reasonswhysuchsignalsareof interest in cellular-typeapplications. Therst
hastodowithaconceptknownasthereusefactor. Inconventional cellular systems, either analogor
digital, inorder toavoidexcessiveinterferencefromonecell toitsneighbor cells, thefrequenciesused
byagivencell arenot usedbyitsimmediateneighbors(i.e., thesystemisdesignedsothat thereisa
certainspatial separationbetweencellsthat usethesamecarrier frequencies). For CDMA, however,
suchspatial isolationistypicallynot needed, sothat so-calleduniversal reuseispossible.
Further, becauseCDMA systemstendtobeinterferencelimited, for thoseapplicationsinvolving
voicetransmission, an additional gain in thecapacityof thesystemcan beachieved bytheuseof
voiceactivitydetection. That is, inanygiventwo-waytelephoneconversation, eachuser istypically
talkingonlyabout 50%of thetime. Duringthetimewhen auser isquiet, heisnot contributing
totheinstantaneousinterference. Thus, if asufcientlylargenumber of userscanbesupportedby
thesystem, statisticallyonlyabout one-half of themwill beactivesimultaneously, andtheeffective
capacitycanbedoubled.
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InterferenceRejection
Inadditiontoprovidingmultipleaccessingcapability, spreadspectrumtechniquesareof in-
terest in thecommercial sector for basicallythesamereasonstheyarein themilitarycommunity,
namelytheir AJ andLPI characteristics. However, themotivationsfor suchinterestdiffer. For exam-
ple, whereasthemilitaryisinterestedinensuringthat systemstheydeployarerobust tointerference
generatedbyanintelligentadversary(i.e., exhibitjammingresistance), theinterferenceof concernin
commercial applicationsisunintentional. Itissometimesreferredtoascochannel interference(CCI)
andarisesnaturallyastheresult of manyservicesusingthesamefrequencybandat thesametime.
Andwhilesuchscenariosalmost alwaysallowfor sometypeof spatial isolationbetweentheinter-
feringwaveforms, suchastheuseof narrow-beamantennapatterns, at timestheuseof theinherent
interferencesuppressionpropertyof aspreadspectrumsignal isalsodesired. Similarly, whereasthe
militaryisverymuchinterestedintheLPI propertyof aspreadspectrumwaveform, asindicatedin
Section11.3, thereareapplicationsinthecommercial segment wherethesamecharacteristiccanbe
usedtoadvantage.
Toillustratethesetwoideas, consider ascenariowherebyagivenbandof frequenciesissomewhat
sparselyoccupiedbyaset of conventional (i.e., nonspread) signals. Toincreasetheoverall spectral
efciencyof theband, aset of spreadspectrumwaveformscan beoverlaidon thesamefrequency
band, thusforcingthetwosetsof userstosharecommonspectrum. Clearly, thisschemeisfeasible
onlyif themutual interferencethat oneset of usersimposesontheother iswithintolerablelimits.
Becauseof theinterferencesuppressionpropertiesof spreadspectrumwaveforms, thedespreading
processat eachspreadspectrumreceiver will attenuatethecomponentsof thenal test statisticdue
totheoverlaidnarrowbandsignals. Similarly, becauseof theLPI characteristicsof spreadspectrum
waveforms, theincreaseintheoverall noiselevel asseenbyanyof theconventional signals, dueto
theoverlay, canbekept relativelysmall.
DeningTerms
Antijamcommunicationsystem: Acommunicationsystemdesignedtoresistintentional jam-
mingbytheenemy.
Chiptime(interval): Thedurationof asinglepulseinadirectsequencemodulation; typically
muchsmaller thantheinformationsymbol interval.
Coarsealignment: Theprocess whereby thereceived signal and thedespreadingsignal are
alignedtowithinasinglechipinterval.
Dehopping: Despreadingusingafrequency-hoppingmodulation.
Delay-lockedloop: A particular implementation of aclosed-looptechniquefor maintaining
nealignment.
Despreading: Thenotionof decreasingthebandwidthof thereceived(spread) signal backto
itsinformationbandwidth.
Directsequencemodulation: Asignal formedbylinearlymodulatingtheoutput sequenceof
apseudorandomnumber generator ontoatrainof pulses.
Directsequencespreadspectrum: A spreadingtechniqueachievedbymultiplyingtheinfor-
mationsignal byadirect sequencemodulation.
Fastfrequency-hopping: A spread spectrumtechniquewherein thehop timeislessthan or
equal to theinformation symbol interval, i.e., thereexist oneor morehops per data
symbol.
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Finealignment: Thestateof thesystemwhereinthereceivedsignal andthedespreadingsignal
arealignedtowithinasmall fractionof asinglechipinterval.
Frequency-hoppingmodulation: Asignal formedbynonlinearlymodulatingatrainof pulses
withasequenceof pseudorandomlygeneratedfrequencyshifts.
Hoptime(interval): Thedurationof asinglepulseinafrequency-hoppingmodulation.
Hybridspreadspectrum: A spreadingtechniqueformedbyblendingtogether several spread
spectrumtechniques, e.g., direct sequence, frequency-hopping, etc.
Low-probability-of-interceptcommunicationsystem: Acommunicationsystemdesignedto
operatein ahostileenvironment wherein theenemy tries to detect thepresenceand
perhapscharacteristicsof thefriendlycommunicatorstransmission.
Processinggain(spreadingratio): Theratioof thespreadspectrumbandwidthtotheinfor-
mationdatarate.
Radiometer: Adeviceusedtomeasurethetotal energyinthereceivedsignal.
Searchalgorithm: A meansfor coarsealigning(synchronizing) thedespreadingsignal with
thereceivedspreadspectrumsignal.
Slowfrequency-hopping: A spreadspectrumtechniquewhereinthehoptimeisgreater than
theinformationsymbol interval, i.e., thereexistsmorethanonedatasymbol per hop.
Spreadspectrumbandwidth: Thebandwidthof thetransmittedsignal after spreading.
Spreading: Thenotionof increasingthebandwidthof thetransmittedsignal byafactor far in
excessof itsinformationbandwidth.
Tauditherloop: Aparticular implementationof aclosed-looptechniquefor maintainingne
alignment.
Time-hoppingspreadspectrum: A spreadingtechniquethat is analogous to pulseposition
modulation.
Trackingalgorithm: Analgorithm(typicallyclosedloop) for maintainingnealignment.
References
[1] Cook, C.F., Ellersick, F.W., Milstein, L.B., andSchilling, D.L., SpreadSpectrumCommunica-
tions, IEEEPress, 1983.
[2] Dixon, R.C., SpreadSpectrumSystems, 3rded., JohnWileyandSons, Inc. 1994.
[3] Holmes, J.K., Coherent SpreadSpectrumSystems, JohnWileyandSons, Inc. 1982.
[4] Simon, M.K., Omura, J.K., Scholtz, R.A., andLevitt, B.K., SpreadSpectrumCommunications
Handbook, McGrawHill, 1994(previouslypublishedasSpreadSpectrumCommunications,
Computer SciencePress, 1985).
[5] Ziemer, R.E. andPeterson, R.L., Digital CommunicationsandSpreadSpectrumTechniques,
Macmillan, 1985.
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