Convolutionally coded multicarrier DS-CDMA systems in a multipath fading channel - Part I: Performance analysis

This paper presents a multicarrier asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system wherein the output of a convolutional encoder modulates multiple band-limited DS-CDMA waveforms, which are transmitted in parallel at different carrier frequencies. The receiver detects and combines signals for the desired user and feeds a soft-decision Viterbi decoder. The performance of this system is compared to that of a conventional single carrier DS-CDMA system with a RAKE receiver, assuming a slowly varying frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel and assuming the presence of additive white Gaussian noise and multiple-access interference. Results will demonstrate similar performance at roughly equal receiver complexity. Part II of this paper extends the comparison to include various forms of narrow-band interference.