Data and Computer

Communications
Chapter 9 – Spread Spectrum

Eighth Edition
by William Stallings

Lecture slides by Lawrie Brown

Spread Spectrum
All creative people want to
do the unexpected.
—Ecstasy and Me: My
Life as a Woman,
Hedy Lamarr
Spread Spectrum
• important encoding method for wireless
communications
• transmit either analog or digital data using analog
signal
• spreads data over a wider bandwidth to make
jamming and interception harder
• two approaches, both in use:
• frequency hopping (first type)
• direct sequence (more recent)
General Model of Spread Spectrum
System
Spread Spectrum Advantages
• immunity from noise and multipath distortion
• can hide / encrypt signals
• several users can share same higher bandwidth with little
interference
• CDM/CDMA mobile telephones
Pseudorandom Numbers
• generated by a deterministic algorithm
• not actually random
• but if algorithm good, results pass reasonable tests of randomness
• starting from an initial seed
• need to know algorithm and seed to predict sequence
• hence only receiver can decode signal
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS)
• signal is broadcast over seemingly random series of
frequencies
• receiver hops between frequencies in sync with
transmitter
• eavesdroppers hear unintelligible blips
• jamming on one frequency affects only a few bits
Frequency Hopping Example
Frequency Hopping
• A spreading code dictates the sequence of channels used.
• Transmitter and receiver use the same code  same sequence.
• Typically, there are 2k carrier frequencies forming 2k channels.
• The width of each channel usually corresponds to the bandwidth
of the input signal.
• Transmitter operates in one channel at a time for a fixed interval
(e.g., IEEE 802.11 standard uses a 300-ms interval)
• During an interval, a number of bit (or a fraction of a bit) is
transmitted using some encoding scheme.
FHSS (Transmitter)
FHSS (Receiver)
Slow and Fast FHSS
• commonly use multiple FSK (MFSK) in conjunction with
FHSS
• have frequency shifted every Tc seconds
• duration of signal element is Ts seconds
• Slow FHSS has Tc  Ts
• Fast FHSS has Tc < Ts
• FHSS more resistant to noise or jamming
• 3 more more frequencies (chips) are used for each signal element:
receiver can decide which signal element was sent on the basis of
a majority of the chips being correct.
Slow MFSK FHSS
Fast MFSK FHSS
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
(DSSS)

• each bit is represented by multiple bits using a spreading

code
• this spreads signal across a wider frequency band
• has performance similar to FHSS
DSSS Example
DSSS Implementations
• Assume a BPSK modulation scheme
• Use +1 and –1 to represent the two binary digits.
• To produce the DSSS signal, multiply the BPSK signal
by c(t), which is the PN sequence taking on values of
+1 and –1:
s(t) = A d(t)c(t) cos(2πfct)
• At the receiver, the incoming signal is multiplied again
by c(t). c(t)  c(t) = 1, the original signal is recovered.
• Implementation 1: multiply d(t) and c(t) together and
then perform the BPSK modulation
• Implementation 2: next slide
DSSS
System
Implementation
• s(t) = A d(t) cos(2πfct)
• d(t) = 1 or -1 for BPSK
• Chipping signal c(t) = 1 or -1 for 1 or 0
• Encoding:
• s'(t) = A d(t)c(t) cos(2πfct)
• Decoding:
• s(t) = A d(t)c(t) cos(2πfct) x c(t)
• s(t) = A d(t) cos(2πfct)
DSSS
Example
Using
BPSK
Approximate
Spectrum of
DSSS Signal
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
• a multiplexing technique used with spread spectrum
• given a data signal rate D
• break each bit into k chips according to a fixed chipping
code specific to each user
• resulting new channel has chip data rate kD chips per
second
• can have multiple channels superimposed
CDMA
Example
Example: Simultaneous Transmissions
Simultaneous Transmissions:
Decoding
Single Transmission
CDMA for DSSS
Benefits of Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA) Technology
• CDMA radio technology offers the following
benefits to wireless carriers:
• Increase of about 6 to 18 times the capacity compared
to the original legacy analog AMPS
• Simplified RF engineering, due to the N = 1 reuse
pattern in CDMA systems
• Increased performance over the weakest link in the
wireless system, the air interface by using rake
receivers to resolve multipath fading
Benefits of Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA) Technology (2)
• Lower transmitted power levels. Lower power bills at the
base station level and longer battery life for CDMA
handsets
• Greater security due to the encoding of CDMA signals
• Enhanced performance and voice quality due to soft-
handoff operations
Summary
• Use of spread spectrum techniques:
• FHSS
• DSSS
• CDMA