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

Spread Spectrum Communications

Mobile Communications Handbook
Ed. Suthan S. Suthersan
Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 1999
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
Spread Spectrum Communi cati ons
Laurence B. Mi l stei n
University of California
Marvi n K. Si mon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
11.1 A Brief History
11.2 Why Spread Spectrum?
11.3 BasicConceptsand Terminology
11.4 Spread SpectrumTechniques
Direct SequenceModulation

Frequency Hopping Modula-
tion

TimeHoppingModulation

Hybrid Modulations
11.5 Applicationsof Spread Spectrum
Military

Commercial
DeningTerms
References
11.1 A Brief History
Spread spectrum(SS) hasitsorigin in themilitary arenawherethefriendly communicator is1) sus-
ceptibleto detection/interception by theenemy and 2) vulnerableto intentionally introduced un-
friendly interference(jamming). Communication systemsthat employ spread spectrum to reduce
the communicators detectability and combat the enemy-introduced interference are respectively
referred to aslowprobabilityofintercept(LPI) and antijam(AJ) communicationsystems. With
thechangein thecurrent world political situation wherein theU.S. Department of Defense(DOD)
has reduced its emphasis on thedevelopment and acquisition of new communication systems for
theoriginal purposes, ahost of newcommercial applicationsfor SShasevolved, particularly in the
areaof cellular mobilecommunications. Thisshift from military to commercial applicationsof SS
hasdemonstrated that thebasic conceptsthat makeSStechniquesso useful in themilitary can also
beput to practical peacetimeuse. In thenext section, wegivea simpledescription of thesebasic
conceptsusingtheoriginal military application asthebasisof explanation. Theextension of these
conceptsto thementioned commercial applicationswill betreated later on in thechapter.
11.2 WhySpreadSpectrum?
Spread spectrum isacommunication techniquewherein thetransmitted modulation isspread(in-
creased) inbandwidthprior totransmissionover thechannel andthendespread(decreased) inband-
width by thesameamount at thereceiver. If it werenot for thefact that thecommunication channel
introducessomeform of narrowband (relativeto thespread bandwidth) interference, thereceiver
performancewould betransparent tothespreadingand despreadingoperations(assumingthat they
areidentical inversesof each other). That is, after despreadingthereceived signal would beidentical
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
to thetransmitted signal prior to spreading. In thepresenceof narrowband interference, however,
thereisasignicant advantageto employing thespreading/despreading proceduredescribed. The
reason for thisisasfollows. Sincetheinterferenceisintroducedafter thetransmittedsignal isspread,
then, whereasthedespreadingoperation at thereceiver shrinksthedesired signal back to itsoriginal
bandwidth, at thesametimeit spreadstheundesired signal (interference) in bandwidth by thesame
amount, thusreducingitspower spectral density. This, in turn, servesto diminish theeffect of the
interference on the receiver performance, which depends on the amount of interference power in
thedespread bandwidth. It isindeed thisvery simpleexplanation, which isat theheart of all spread
spectrumtechniques.
11.3 Basic ConceptsandTerminology
Todescribethisprocessanalyticallyandat thesametimeintroducesometerminologythat iscommon
in spread spectrumparlance, weproceed asfollows. Consider acommunicator that desirestosend a
messageusingatransmittedpower S Watts(W) at aninformationrateR
b
bits/s(bps). Byintroducing
aSSmodulation, thebandwidth of thetransmitted signal isincreased fromR
b
Hzto W
ss
Hzwhere
W
ss
R
b
denotesthespreadspectrumbandwidth. Assumethat thechannel introduces, inaddition
to the usual thermal noise (assumed to have a single-sided power spectral density (PSD) equal to
N
0
W/Hz), an additiveinterference(jamming) having power J distributed over somebandwidth
W
J
. After despreading, the desired signal bandwidth is once again now equal to R
b
Hz and the
interferencePSDisnowN
J
= J/W
ss
. Notethat sincethethermal noiseisassumed tobewhite, i.e.,
it isuniformly distributed over all frequencies, itsPSD isunchanged by thedespreading operation
and, thus, remainsequal to N
0
. Regardlessof thesignal and interferer waveforms, theequivalent bit
energy-to-total noisespectral density ratio is, in termsof thegiven parameters,
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
in thechannel can beignored. Thus, assumingN
J
N
0
, wecan rewriteEq. (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)
wheretheratio J/S isthejammer-to-signal power ratioand theratio W
ss
/R
b
isthespreadingratio
andisdenedastheprocessinggainof thesystem. Sincetheultimateerror probabilityperformance
of thecommunication receiver dependson theratio E
b
/N
J
, weseethat from thecommunicators
viewpoint hisgoal should beto minimizeJ/S (by choiceof S) and maximizetheprocessing gain
(by choiceof W
ss
for agiven desired information rate). Thepossiblestrategiesfor thejammer will
bediscussed in thesection on military applicationsdealingwith AJcommunications.
11.4 SpreadSpectrumTechniques
By far thetwo most popular spreading techniques aredirectsequence(DS) modulationand fre-
quencyhopping(FH)modulation. In thefollowingsubsections, wepresent abrief description of
each.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
FIGURE11.1: A DS-BPSK system(complex form).
11.4.1 Direct SequenceModulation
A direct sequencemodulation c(t ) isformed by linearly modulating theoutput sequence{c
n
} of a
pseudorandom number generator onto atrain of pulses, each havingaduration T
c
called thechip
time. In mathematical form,
c(t ) =

n=
c
n
p (t nT
c
) (11.3)
wherep(t ) isthebasicpulseshapeandisassumedtobeof rectangular form. Thistypeof modulation
isusually used with binary phase-shift-keyed (BPSK) information signals, which havethecomplex
formd(t ) exp{j (2f
c
t +
c
)}, whered(t ) isabinary-valueddatawaveformof rate1/T
b
bits/sandf
c
and
c
arethefrequency and phaseof thedata-modulated carrier, 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
ischosen so that T
b
T
c
, then relativeto thebandwidth of theBPSK information signal,
thebandwidth of theDS/BPSKsignal
1
iseffectivelyincreasedbytheratioT
b
/T
c
= W
ss
/2R
b
, which
is one-half the spreading factor or processing gain of the system. At the receiver, the sum of the
transmitted DS/BPSK signal and thechannel interferenceI (t ) (asdiscussed before, weignorethe
presenceof theadditivethermal noise) areideally multiplied by theidentical DSmodulation (this
operation isknown asdespreading), which returnstheDS/BPSK signal to itsoriginal BPSK form
whereas thereal interferencesignal is now thereal wideband signal Re{I (t )c(t )}. In theprevious
sentence, weused theword ideally, which impliesthat thePN waveformused for despreadingat the
receiver isidentical to that used for spreadingat thetransmitter. Thissimpleimplication coversup
amultitudeof tasksthat apractical DSreceiver must perform. In particular, thereceiver must rst
acquirethePN waveform. That is, thelocal PN random generator that generatesthePN waveform
at thereceiver used for despreading must bealigned (synchronized) to within onechip of thePN
waveform of thereceived DS/BPSK signal. Thisisaccomplished by employingsomesort of search
algorithmwhich typically stepsthelocal PN waveform sequentially in timeby afraction of achip
(e.g., half achip) and at each position searchesfor ahigh degreeof correlation between thereceived
and local PN reference waveforms. The search terminates when the correlation exceeds a given
threshold, which isan indication that thealignment hasbeen achieved. After bringingthetwo PN
waveformsinto coarsealignment, a trackingalgorithmisemployed to maintain nealignment.
1
For theusual caseof arectangular spreadingpulsep(t ), thePSD of theDS/BPSK modulation will have(sin x/x)
2
form
with rst zero crossingat 1/T
c
, which isnominally taken asone-half thespread spectrumbandwidth W
ss
.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
Themost popular formsof trackingloopsarethecontinuoustimedelay-lockedloopand itstime-
multiplexedversionthetauditherloop. It isthedifcultyinsynchronizingthereceiver PNgenerator
tosubnanosecondaccuracythat limitsPNchipratestovalueson theorder of hundredsof Mchips/s,
which impliesthesamelimitation on theDSspread spectrumbandwidth W
ss
.
11.4.2 FrequencyHoppingModulation
A frequencyhopping(FH)modulationc(t ) isformed by nonlinearly modulatingatrain of pulses
with a sequenceof pseudorandomly generated frequency shifts{f
n
}. In mathematical terms, c(t )
hasthecomplex form
c(t ) =

n=
exp {j (2f
n
+
n
)} p (t nT
h
) (11.5)
wherep(t ) is again thebasic pulseshapehaving a duration T
h
, called thehoptimeand {
n
} is a
sequenceof randomphasesassociatedwiththegenerationof thehops. FHmodulationistraditionally
usedwithmultiple-frequency-shift-keyed(MFSK) informationsignals, whichhavethecomplexform
exp{j[2(f
c
+d(t ))t ]}, whered(t ) isan M-level digital waveform(M denotesthesymbol alphabet
size) representing theinformation frequency modulation at arate1/T
s
symbols/s(sps). Assuch,
an FH/MFSK signal isformed by complex multiplyingtheMFSK signal by c(t ) resultingin thereal
transmitted signal
x(t ) = Re{c(t ) exp {j [2(f
c
+d(t ))t ]}} (11.6)
In reality, c(t ) isnever generatedin thetransmitter. Rather, x(t ) isobtainedbyapplyingthesequence
of pseudorandomfrequencyshifts{f
n
} directlytothefrequencysynthesizer that generatesthecarrier
frequency f
c
(see Fig. 11.2). In terms of the actual implementation, successive (not necessarily
FIGURE11.2: An FH-MFSK system.
disjoint) k-chip segments of a PN sequence drive a frequency synthesizer, which hops the carrier
over 2
k
frequencies. In view of the large bandwidths over which the frequency synthesizer must
operate, it isdifcult to maintain phasecoherencefromhop to hop, which explainstheinclusion of
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
thesequence{
n
} in theEq. (11.5) model for c(t ). On ashort term basis, e.g., within agiven hop,
the signal bandwidth is identical to that of the MFSK information modulation, which is typically
much smaller than W
ss
. On theother hand, when averaged over many hops, thesignal bandwidth
isequal to W
ss
, which can beon theorder of several GHz, i.e., an order of magnitudelarger than
that of implementableDSbandwidths. Theexact relation between W
ss
, T
h
, T
s
and thenumber of
frequency shiftsin theset {f
n
} will bediscussed shortly.
At thereceiver, thesum of thetransmitted FH/MFSK signal and thechannel interferenceI (t ) is
ideally complex multiplied by theidentical FH modulation (thisoperation isknown asdehopping),
which returnstheFH/MFSKsignal to itsoriginal MFSKform, whereasthereal interferencesignal is
nowthewideband (in theaveragesense) signal Re{I (t )c(t )}. Analogousto theDScase, thereceiver
must acquire and track the FH signal so that the dehopping waveform is as close to the hopping
waveformc(t ) aspossible.
FH systemsaretraditionallyclassiedin accordancewiththerelationshipbetween T
h
andT
s
. Fast
frequency-hopped(FFH)systemsareonesin which thereexistsoneor morehopsper datasymbol,
that is, T
s
= NT
h
(N an integer) whereasslowfrequency-hopped(SFH)systemsareonesin which
thereexists morethan onesymbol per hop, that is, T
h
= NT
s
. It is customary in SSparlanceto
refer to theFH/MFSK toneof shortest duration asachip, despitethesameusagefor thePN chips
associated with thecodegenerator that drivesthefrequency synthesizer. Keepingthisdistinction in
mind, in an FFH system where, asalready stated, therearemultiplehopsper datasymbol, achip is
equal to ahop. For SFH, wheretherearemultipledatasymbolsper hop, achip isequal to an MFSK
symbol. Combiningthesetwo statements, thechip rateR
c
in an FH system isgiven by thelarger of
R
h
= 1/T
h
and R
s
= 1/T
s
and, assuch, isthehighest systemclock rate.
Thefrequency spacingbetween theFH/MFSK tonesisgoverned by thechip rateR
c
and is, thus,
dependent on whether theFH modulation isFFH or SFH. In particular, for SFH whereR
c
= R
s
,
thespacing between FH/MFSK tonesisequal to thespacing between theMFSK tonesthemselves.
For noncoherent detection (themost commonlyencountered in FH/MFSKsystems), theseparation
of theMFSK symbolsnecessary to provideorthogonality
2
isan integer multipleof R
s
. Assuming
theminimum spacing, i.e., R
s
, theentirespread spectrum band isthen partitioned into atotal of
N
t
= W
ss
/R
s
= W
ss
/R
c
equally spaced FH tones. One arrangement, which is by far the most
common, istogroup theseN
t
tonesintoN
b
= N
t
/M contiguous, nonoverlappingbands, each with
bandwidthMR
s
= MR
c
; seeFig. 11.3a. AssumingsymmetricMFSKmodulation aroundthecarrier
frequency, then thecenter frequenciesof theN
b
= 2
k
bandsrepresent theset of hop carriers, each
of which isassigned to agiven k-tupleof thePN codegenerator. In thisxed arrangement, each of
theN
t
FH/MFSK tonescorrespondsto thecombination of auniquehop carrier (PN codek-tuple)
and a unique MFSK symbol. Another arrangement, which provides more protection against the
sophisticated interferer (jammer), isto overlap adjacent M-ary bandsby an amount equal to R
c
; see
Fig. 11.3b. Assuming again that thecenter frequency of each band corresponds to a possiblehop
carrier, then sinceall but M 1 of theN
t
tonesareavailableascenter frequencies, thenumber of
hop carriershasbeen increased fromN
t
/M to N
t
(M 1), which for N
t
M isapproximately
an increasein randomnessby afactor of M.
For FFH, whereR
c
= R
h
, thespacing between FH/MFSK tonesisequal to thehop rate. Thus,
the entire spread spectrum band is partitioned into a total of N
t
= W
ss
/R
h
= W
ss
/R
c
equally
2
Anoptimumnoncoherent MFSKdetector consistsof abankof energydetectorseachmatchedtooneof theM frequencies
in theMFSKset. In termsof thisstructure, thenotion of orthogonalityimpliesthat for agiven transmittedfrequencythere
will beno crosstalk (energy spillover) in any of theother M 1 energy detectors.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
Figure11.3a Frequency distribution for FH-4FSKnonoverlappingbands. Dashed linesindicatelocation of hop
frequencies.
spaced FH tones, each of which isassigned to auniquek-tupleof thePN codegenerator that drives
thefrequency synthesizer. Sincefor FFH thereareR
h
/R
s
hopsper symbol, then themetric used to
makea noncoherent decision on a particular symbol is obtained by summing up R
h
/R
s
detected
chip (hop) energies, resultingin aso-called noncoherent combiningloss.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
Figure11.3b Frequency distribution for FH-4FSKover-lappingbands.
11.4.3 TimeHoppingModulation
Time hopping (TH) is to spread spectrum modulation what pulse position modulation (PPM) is
to information modulation. In particular, consider segmenting time into intervals of T
f
seconds
and further segment each T
f
interval into M
T
incrementsof width T
f
/M
T
. Assuming a pulseof
maximumduration equal toT
f
/M
T
, then atimehoppingspreadspectrummodulation wouldtake
theform
c(t ) =

n=
p
_
t
_
n +
a
n
M
T
_
T
f
_
(11.7)
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
wherea
n
denotesthepseudorandom position (oneof M
T
uniformly spaced locations) of thepulse
within theT
f
-second interval.
For DSandFH, wesawthat multiplicativemodulation, that isthetransmittedsignal istheproduct
of theSSand information signals, wasthenatural choice. For TH, delaymodulation isthenatural
choice. In particular, aTH-SSmodulation takestheform
x(t ) = Re{c(t d(t )) exp [j (2f
c
+
T
)]} (11.8)
whered(t ) isadigital information modulation at arate1/T
s
sps. Finally, thedehoppingprocedure
at the receiver consists of removing the sequence of delays introduced by c(t ), which restores the
information signal back to itsoriginal formand spreadstheinterferer.
11.4.4 HybridModulations
Byblendingtogether several of theprevioustypesof SSmodulation, onecanformhybridmodulations
that, dependingonthesystemdesignobjectives, canachieveabetter performanceagainst theinterferer
than can any of theSSmodulationsacting alone. Onepossibility isto multiply several of thec(t )
wideband waveforms[ nowdenoted by c
(i)
(t ) to distinguish them from oneanother] resultingin a
SSmodulation of theform
c(t ) =

i
c
(i)
(t ) (11.9)
Such amodulation may embracetheadvantagesof thevariousc
(i)
(t ), whileat thesametimemiti-
gatingtheir individual disadvantages.
11.5 Applicationsof SpreadSpectrum
11.5.1 Military
Antijam(AJ)Communications
Asalreadynoted, oneof thekeyapplicationsof spreadspectrumisfor antijamcommunications
in a hostile environment. The basic mechanism by which a direct sequencespreadspectrum
receiver attenuates a noise jammer was illustrated in Section 11.3. Therefore, in this section, we
will concentrateon tonejamming.
Assumethereceived signal, denoted r(t ), isgiven by
r(t ) = Ax(t ) +I (t ) +n
w
(t ) (11.10)
wherex(t ) isgiven in Eq. (11.4), A isaconstant amplitude,
I (t ) = cos (2f
c
t +) (11.11)
and n
w
(t ) is additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) having two-sided spectral density N
0
/2. In
Eq. (11.11), istheamplitudeof thetonejammer and isarandomphaseuniformly distributed in
[0, 2] .
If weemploy thestandard correlation receiver of Fig. 11.4, it isstraightforward to show that the
nal test statisticout of thereceiver isgiven by
g(T
b
) = AT
b
+ cos
_
T
b
0
c(t ) dt +N (T
b
) (11.12)
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
FIGURE11.4: Standard correlation receiver.
whereN(T
b
) isthecontribution to thetest statistic dueto theAWGN. Notingthat, for rectangular
chips, wecan express
_
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 the processing gain, it is straightforward to show that, for a given value of , the
signal-to-noise-plus-interferenceratio, denoted by S/N
total
, isgiven by
S
N
total
=
1
N
0
2E
b
+
_
J
MS
_
cos
2

(11.15)
In Eq. (11.15), thejammer power is
J

=

2
2
(11.16)
and thesignal power is
S

=
A
2
2
(11.17)
If welook at thesecondterminthedenominator of Eq. (11.15), weseethat theratioJ/S isdivided
by M. Realizingthat J/S istheratio of thejammer power to thesignal power beforedespreading,
and J/MS istheratio of thesamequantity after despreading, weseethat, aswasthecasefor noise
jamming, thebenet of employingdirect sequencespreadspectrumsignallinginthepresenceof tone
jammingisto reducetheeffect of thejammer by an amount on theorder of theprocessinggain.
Finally, onecan showthat an estimateof theaverageprobability of error of asystem of thistype
isgiven by
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) isevaluated numerically and plotted, theresultsareasshown in Fig. 11.5. It isclear
fromthisgurethat alargeinitial power advantageof thejammer can beovercomeby asufciently
largevalueof theprocessinggain.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
FIGURE11.5: Plotted resultsof Eq. (11.18).
Low-Probabilityof Intercept (LPI)
Theoppositesideof theAJproblem isthat of LPI, that is, thedesireto hideyour signal from
detection by an intelligent adversary so that your transmissions will remain unnoticed and, thus,
neither jammed nor exploited in any manner. This idea of designing an LPI system is achieved
in a variety of ways, including transmitting at the smallest possible power level, and limiting the
transmission timeto asshort an interval in timeasispossible. Thechoiceof signal design isalso
important, however, and it isherethat spread spectrumtechniquesbecomerelevant.
Thebasic mechanism isreasonably straightforward; if westart with aconventional narrowband
signal, say aBPSK waveformhavingaspectrumasshown in Fig. 11.6a, and then spread it so that its
newspectrumisasshown in Fig. 11.6b, thepeak amplitudeof thespectrumafter spreadinghasbeen
reduced by an amount on theorder of theprocessinggain relativeto what it wasbeforespreading.
Indeed, asufciently largeprocessing gain will result in thespectrum of thesignal after spreading
fallingbelowtheambient thermal noiselevel. Thus, thereisno easy way for an unintended listener
to determinethat atransmission istakingplace.
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
Figure11.6a
Figure11.6b
That isnot to say thespread signal cannot bedetected, however, merely that it ismoredifcult
for an adversary to learn of thetransmission. Indeed, therearemany formsof so-called intercept
receivers that are specically designed to accomplish this very task. By way of example, probably
thebest known and simplest to implement isaradiometer, which isjust adevicethat measuresthe
total power present in thereceived signal. In thecaseof our intercept problem, even though wehave
lowered the power spectral density of the transmitted signal so that it falls below the noise oor,
wehavenot lowered itspower (i.e., wehavemerely spread itspower over awider frequency range).
Thus, if theradiometer integratesover asufciently longperiod of time, it will eventually determine
thepresenceof thetransmitted signal buried in thenoise. Thekey point, of course, isthat theuse
of thespreadingmakestheinterceptorstask much moredifcult, sincehehasno knowledgeof the
spreadingcodeand, thus, cannot despread thesignal.
11.5.2 Commercial
MultipleAccessCommunications
From theperspectiveof commercial applications, probably themost important useof spread
spectrumcommunicationsisasamultipleaccessingtechnique. Whenusedinthismanner, it becomes
an alternativeto either frequency division multipleaccess(FDMA) or timedivision multipleaccess
(TDMA) and is typically referred to as either code division multiple access (CDMA) or spread
spectrummultipleaccess(SSMA). WhenusingCDMA, eachsignal intheset isgivenitsownspreading
sequence. Asopposed to either FDMA, wherein all usersoccupy disjoint frequency bandsbut are
transmitted simultaneously in time, or TDMA, whereby all usersoccupy thesamebandwidth but
transmit in disjoint intervals of time, in CDMA, all signals occupy the same bandwidth and are
transmitted simultaneously in time; thedifferent waveformsin CDMA aredistinguished from one
another at thereceiver by thespecicspreadingcodesthey employ.
Sincemost CDMAdetectorsarecorrelationreceivers, it isimportant whendeployingsuchasystem
tohaveaset of spreadingsequencesthat haverelativelylow-pairwisecross-correlationbetweenanytwo
sequencesin theset. Further, therearetwo fundamental typesof operation in CDMA, synchronous
and asynchronous. In theformer case, thesymbol transition times of all of theusers arealigned;
this allows for orthogonal sequences to be used as the spreading sequences and, thus, eliminates
interferencefrom oneuser to another. Alternately, if no effort ismadeto align thesequences, the
c 1999by CRCPressLLC
system operatesasychronously; in thislatter mode, multipleaccessinterferencelimitstheultimate
channel capacity, but thesystemdesign exhibitsmuch moreexibility.
CDMAhasbeen of particular interest recentlyfor applicationsin wirelesscommunications. These
applicationsincludecellular communications, personal communicationsservices(PCS), andwireless
local areanetworks. Thereason for thispopularity isprimarily dueto theperformancethat spread
spectrumwaveformsdisplay when transmitted over amultipath fadingchannel.
To illustrate this idea, consider DSsignalling. As long as the duration of a single chip of the
spreading sequenceis less than themultipath delay spread, theuseof DSwaveforms provides the
systemdesigner withoneof twooptions. First, themultipathcan betreatedasaformof interference,
which means the receiver should attempt to attenuate it as much as possible. Indeed, under this
condition, all of themultipath returnsthat arriveat thereceiver with atimedelay greater than achip
duration from themultipath return to which thereceiver issynchronized (usually therst return)
will beattenuated becauseof theprocessinggain of thesystem.
Alternately, themultipath returnsthat areseparated by morethan achip duration fromthemain
pathrepresent independent looks at thereceivedsignal andcanbeusedconstructivelytoenhancethe
overall performanceof thereceiver. That is, becauseall of themultipathreturnscontain information
regardingthedatathat isbeingsent, that information can beextracted by an appropriately designed
receiver. Such a receiver, typically referred to as a RAKE receiver, attempts to resolve as many
individual multipath returnsaspossibleand then tosumthemcoherently. Thisresultsin an implicit
diversity gain, comparableto theuseof explicit diversity, such asreceivingthesignal with multiple
antennas.
The condition under which the two options are available can be stated in an alternate manner.
If one envisions what is taking place in the frequency domain, it is straightforward to show that
the condition of the chip duration being smaller than the multipath delay spread is equivalent to
requiringthat thespreadbandwidthof thetransmittedwaveformexceedwhat iscalledthecoherence
bandwidth of thechannel. Thislatter quantity issimply theinverseof themultipath delay spread
andisameasureof therangeof frequenciesthat fadein ahighlycorrelatedmanner. Indeed, anytime
thecoherencebandwidth of thechannel islessthan thespread bandwidth of thesignal, thechannel
issaid to befrequencyselectivewith respect to thesignal. Thus, weseethat to takeadvantageof DS
signalling when used over a multipath fading channel, that signal should be designed such that it
makesthechannel appear frequency selective.
Inadditiontothedesirablepropertiesthat spreadspectrumsignalsdisplayover multipathchannels,
therearetwo other reasonswhy such signalsareof interest in cellular-typeapplications. Therst
hastodowith aconcept known asthereusefactor. In conventional cellular systems, either analogor
digital, inorder toavoidexcessiveinterferencefromonecell toitsneighbor cells, thefrequenciesused
by agiven cell arenot used by itsimmediateneighbors(i.e., thesystem isdesigned so that thereisa
certain spatial separation between cellsthat usethesamecarrier frequencies). For CDMA, however,
such spatial isolation istypically not needed, so that so-called universal reuseispossible.
Further, becauseCDMA systemstend to beinterferencelimited, for thoseapplicationsinvolving
voicetransmission, an additional gain in thecapacity of thesystem can beachieved by theuseof
voiceactivitydetection. That is, in any given two-way telephoneconversation, each user istypically
talking only about 50% of thetime. During thetimewhen a user is quiet, heis not contributing
to theinstantaneousinterference. Thus, if asufciently largenumber of userscan besupported by
thesystem, statistically only about one-half of them will beactivesimultaneously, and theeffective
capacity can bedoubled.
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InterferenceRejection
In addition to providingmultipleaccessingcapability, spread spectrum techniquesareof in-
terest in thecommercial sector for basically thesamereasonsthey arein themilitary community,
namelytheir AJandLPI characteristics. However, themotivationsfor suchinterest differ. For exam-
ple, whereasthemilitary isinterested in ensuringthat systemsthey deploy arerobust to interference
generatedbyan intelligent adversary(i.e., exhibit jammingresistance), theinterferenceof concern in
commercial applicationsisunintentional. It issometimesreferredtoascochannel interference(CCI)
and arisesnaturally astheresult of many servicesusingthesamefrequency band at thesametime.
And whilesuch scenariosalmost alwaysallow for sometypeof spatial isolation between theinter-
feringwaveforms, such astheuseof narrow-beamantennapatterns, at timestheuseof theinherent
interferencesuppression property of aspread spectrumsignal isalso desired. Similarly, whereasthe
military isvery much interested in theLPI property of aspread spectrum waveform, asindicated in
Section 11.3, thereareapplicationsin thecommercial segment wherethesamecharacteristiccan be
used to advantage.
To illustratethesetwo ideas, consider ascenario whereby agiven band of frequenciesissomewhat
sparsely occupied by aset of conventional (i.e., nonspread) signals. To increasetheoverall spectral
efciency of theband, aset of spread spectrum waveformscan beoverlaid on thesamefrequency
band, thusforcingthetwo setsof usersto sharecommon spectrum. Clearly, thisschemeisfeasible
only if themutual interferencethat oneset of usersimposeson theother iswithin tolerablelimits.
Becauseof theinterferencesuppression propertiesof spread spectrum waveforms, thedespreading
processat each spread spectrum receiver will attenuatethecomponentsof thenal test statisticdue
to theoverlaid narrowband signals. Similarly, becauseof theLPI characteristicsof spread spectrum
waveforms, theincreasein theoverall noiselevel asseen by any of theconventional signals, dueto
theoverlay, can bekept relatively small.
DeningTerms
Antijamcommunicationsystem: Acommunicationsystemdesignedtoresist intentional jam-
mingby theenemy.
Chiptime(interval): Theduration of asinglepulsein adirect sequencemodulation; typically
much smaller than theinformation symbol interval.
Coarsealignment: The process whereby the received signal and the despreading signal are
aligned to within asinglechip interval.
Dehopping: Despreadingusingafrequency-hoppingmodulation.
Delay-lockedloop: A particular implementation of aclosed-loop techniquefor maintaining
nealignment.
Despreading: Thenotion of decreasingthebandwidth of thereceived (spread) signal back to
itsinformation bandwidth.
Directsequencemodulation: A signal formed by linearly modulatingtheoutput sequenceof
apseudorandomnumber generator onto atrain of pulses.
Directsequencespreadspectrum: A spreading techniqueachieved by multiplying theinfor-
mation signal by adirect sequencemodulation.
Fastfrequency-hopping: A spread spectrum techniquewherein thehop timeis less than or
equal to the information symbol interval, i.e., there exist one or more hops per data
symbol.
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Finealignment: Thestateof thesystemwherein thereceived signal and thedespreadingsignal
arealigned to within asmall fraction of asinglechip interval.
Frequency-hoppingmodulation: Asignal formedbynonlinearlymodulatingatrain of pulses
with asequenceof pseudorandomly generated frequency shifts.
Hoptime(interval): Theduration of asinglepulsein afrequency-hoppingmodulation.
Hybridspreadspectrum: A spreadingtechniqueformed by blendingtogether several spread
spectrumtechniques, e.g., direct sequence, frequency-hopping, etc.
Low-probability-of-interceptcommunicationsystem: Acommunication systemdesigned to
operate in a hostile environment wherein the enemy tries to detect the presence and
perhapscharacteristicsof thefriendly communicatorstransmission.
Processinggain(spreadingratio): Theratio of thespread spectrum bandwidth to theinfor-
mation datarate.
Radiometer: A deviceused to measurethetotal energy in thereceived signal.
Searchalgorithm: A means for coarse aligning (synchronizing) the despreading signal with
thereceived spread spectrumsignal.
Slowfrequency-hopping: A spread spectrum techniquewherein thehop timeisgreater than
theinformation symbol interval, i.e., thereexistsmorethan onedatasymbol per hop.
Spreadspectrumbandwidth: Thebandwidth of thetransmitted signal after spreading.
Spreading: Thenotion of increasingthebandwidth of thetransmitted signal by afactor far in
excessof itsinformation bandwidth.
Tauditherloop: Aparticular implementation of aclosed-looptechniquefor maintainingne
alignment.
Time-hoppingspreadspectrum: A spreading technique that is analogous to pulse position
modulation.
Trackingalgorithm: An algorithm(typically closed loop) for maintainingnealignment.
References
[ 1] Cook, C.F., Ellersick, F.W., Milstein, L.B., and Schilling, D.L., SpreadSpectrumCommunica-
tions, IEEEPress, 1983.
[ 2] Dixon, R.C., SpreadSpectrumSystems, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1994.
[ 3] Holmes, J.K., Coherent SpreadSpectrumSystems, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1982.
[ 4] Simon, M.K., Omura, J.K., Scholtz, R.A., and Levitt, B.K., SpreadSpectrumCommunications
Handbook, McGraw Hill, 1994 (previously published asSpreadSpectrumCommunications,
Computer SciencePress, 1985).
[ 5] Ziemer, R.E. and Peterson, R.L., Digital CommunicationsandSpreadSpectrumTechniques,
Macmillan, 1985.
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