Spread spectrum in CDMA

1. General principle:

Spread spectrum distributes all available frequency and time resources to multiple users
simultaneously, while controlling each user's transmit power to maintain a desired signal-
to-noise ratio. Each user's signal is spread over a wide bandwidth, resembling noise that
occupies the entire allocated spectrum. This way, each user contributes to the overall
noise floor, but the impact is minimized through power control.

A system is considered spread spectrum if: The spread spectrum signal has a significantly
wider bandwidth than the original information signal.

Spread spectrum is implemented using a code that is independent of the original data.

Spread spectrum block diagram:

Figure 1: Spread Spectrum Principle

3 Basic Spread Spectrum Techniques:

- Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS/SS)

- Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH/SS)
- Time Hopping Spread Spectrum (TH/SS)
2. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS-CDMA)
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS-SS) systems achieve spectrum spreading by
performing a modulo-2 addition (XOR operation) of the original data with a
pseudorandom noise (PN) sequence. The resulting spread spectrum signal is then
modulated onto a carrier using a modulation scheme such as BPSK or QPSK. At the
receiver, the received signal is correlated with the same PN sequence used at the
transmitter to despread the signal and recover the original data. This is the most widely
used spread spectrum system due to its simplicity and robustness. Unlike other spread
spectrum techniques, DS-SS does not require high-speed frequency synthesis.
2.1. DS/SS – BPSK

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS/SS) with Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK):

Figure 2: DS-SS-BPSK Spreading and Modulation Process

A binary signal with a bit rate Rb = 1/Tb is NRZ-encoded such that b(t)= ±1. This signal
can be represented as:

Here, bk = ±1 represents the kth data bit, and T is the duration of a data bit. The signal
b(t) undergoes spread spectrum modulation by multiplying it with a pseudorandom noise
signal p(t), where p(t) = ±1 and the chip rate Rc= 1/Tc is significantly higher than the bit
rate Rb. The binary elements of p(t) are referred to as chips to differentiate them from
the data bits.
The received spread spectrum signal b(t)p(t) will be modulated onto a carrier using
Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK). The resulting DS-SS-BPSK transmitted signal is
given by:

s(t) = Ab(t)p(t) cos(2πfct + θ(t))

 Carrier amplitude (A)

 Carrier frequency (fc)
 Carrier phase (θ(t))

The signal b(t)p(t) has a chip rate, meaning T = NTc. When N = 7, the waveforms of the
signals are as follows:

Figure 3: The spectrum of the DS/SS signal

Block diagram of the despreading process:

 Figure 4: BPSK Demodulation of a Spread Spectrum Signal

The received signal at the receiver, denoted as m(t), is composed of the delayed
transmitted signal s(t-τ) and additive white Gaussian noise n(t). Mathematically, this can
be expressed as:

m(t) = s(t-τ) + n(t) = Ab(t-τ)p(t-τ)cos{2πfc(t-τ) + θ(t))} + n(t).

Assuming a noise-free environment, the input signal to the bandpass filter (BPF), denoted
as r(t), can be expressed as:

r(t) = Ab(t- τ)p(t- τ) cos{2πfc(t- τ) θ(t))} 2cos{2πfc(t- τ) + θ(t))}

= Ab(t- τ)p(t- τ) + Ab(t- τ)p(t- τ) cos{2πfc(t- τ) + θ(t))}

The bandpass filter within the demodulator acts as a low-pass filter, eliminating high-
frequency components and allowing only the baseband signal u(t) = b(t)p(t) to pass.
Subsequently, this baseband signal is multiplied by a locally generated replica of the
spreading code, p(t-τ), which is synchronized with the received signal. Given that p(t- τ)
can only assume values of ±1, it follows that p2(t- τ) is always unity.

The output of the multiplier yields:

x(t) = b(t- τ)p(t- τ)p(t- τ) = b(t- τ)p2(t- τ) = b(t- τ)

Subsequently, this signal undergoes integration over a bit period to suppress noise.
The recovered data at the integrator output is identical to the original baseband signal,
except for a time delay of τ.
2.2. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum with Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DS/SS-
QPSK)

DS/SS-QPSK enables the constraint of high-frequency bandwidth for a specified code

rate. By combining two data bits into a single modulation symbol, QPSK effectively
doubles the data transmission rate within a fixed RF bandwidth (or conversely, halves the
required RF bandwidth for a given data rate). Nevertheless, this comes at the cost of a
substantial reduction in processing gain, resulting in a higher bit error rate.

3. Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum(FH - CDMA)

3.1. General principles

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS) is a spread spectrum technique where the
carrier frequency is rapidly switched among a predefined set of frequencies according to
a pseudo-random code. The total bandwidth is partitioned into non-overlapping frequency
channels. A pseudo-noise (PN) sequence dictates the specific frequency channel used for
data transmission during a particular time slot.

Unlike direct sequence spread spectrum, where the spreading code directly modulates the
data signal, in FH-SS, the PN sequence is used to control a frequency synthesizer to
generate the hopping pattern.

The hopping rate can be either faster or slower than the data rate, leading to fast
frequency hopping or slow frequency hopping, respectively.

Block Diagrams for FH-SS Transmitter and Receiver FH-SS Transmitter:

 Figure 5: Block diagram of a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS) system

In the receiver, the received signal is mixed with a locally generated carrier that is
synchronized with the transmitter's carrier. This local carrier is produced by a PN
sequence generator identical to the transmitter's, controlling a frequency synthesizer to
generate the corresponding frequency. Consequently, the pseudo-random frequency
hopping introduced at the transmitter is eliminated at the receiver.

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) is commonly employed in such systems. Non-coherent

demodulation is used due to the continuously changing carrier frequency during
transmission.

3.2. Fast Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS) Systems

Understanding the Basics

In a fast Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS) system, the carrier frequency of a
signal is switched rapidly among a predefined set of frequencies according to a
predetermined pattern. This pattern is typically generated by a pseudo-random number
generator (PN sequence generator).

Key Characteristics of Fast FH-SS:

 Rapid Frequency Hopping: The frequency changes multiple times within a

single data bit duration.
  High Hopping Rate: The hopping rate is much faster than the data rate.

 Wide Bandwidth: The signal is spread over a wide bandwidth, improving

resistance to interference and jamming.

Mathematical Representation

 T: The duration of one data bit.

 Th: The duration of one frequency hop.

 Condition: T/Th ≥ 1, meaning at least one frequency hop occurs within one data
bit.

 Frequency Set: {f0, f0+∆f, f0+2∆f, ..., f0+(j-1)∆f}, where:

o f0: The starting frequency.

o ∆f: The frequency step size, often chosen to be 1/Th.

 Hopping Rate: In the given example, the hopping rate is 3 times the data rate.
 Figure 6: Frequency Spectrum of a Fast FH-SS System with T=3Th

3.3. Slow Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS) System

When the frequency hopping rate of a spread spectrum carrier is slower than the data rate,
we have a slow frequency hopping spread spectrum (FH-SS) system (T/Th < 1). While
slow and fast FH-SS systems share many similarities, there are some key differences in
their spectral characteristics

Frequency Spectrum of Slow FH-SS (T/Th = 1/2):

 Figure 7: Frequency spectrum illustrating the fast FH-SS system where the data bit
duration (T) is half the hop duration (Th).

4. Time-Hopping Spread Spectrum (TH/SS)

Time-hopping is similar to pulse modulation. This means that the code sequence controls
the on/off state of the transmitter, and the on/off time of the transmitter is converted into a
pseudo-random signal form according to the code, achieving a 50% average duty cycle.
The main difference compared to a simple FH/SS system is that while the transmission
frequency changes with each code chip in an FH/SS system, the frequency hopping only
occurs during the state of code sequence shifting in a TH/SS system.

We can see that the modulator is very simple, and any waveform that allows code-
division pulse modulation can be used for a TH/SS modulator.
TH/SS can reduce interference between systems in a time-division multiplexed system.
For this purpose, precise timing is required in the system to minimize the overlap
between transmitters.

Due to the susceptibility of TH/SS systems to interference, it is necessary to use a

combined system of TH/SS and FH/SS to eliminate interference that could cause
significant degradation at a single frequency.

Figure 8: Block diagram of a time-hopping spread spectrum transceive