Performance of Fractionally Spread Multicarrier CDMA in AWGN as Well as Slow and Fast Nakagami-m Fading Channels

Abstract—In multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MCCDMA), the total system bandwidth is divided into a number of subbands, where each subband may use direct-sequence (DS) spreading and each subband signal is transmitted using a subcarrier frequency. In this paper, we divide the symbol duration into a number of fractional subsymbol durations also referred to here as fractions, in a manner analogous to subbands in MC-CDMA systems. In the proposed MC-CDMA scheme, the data streams are spread at both the symbol-fraction level and at the chip level by the transmitter, and hence the proposed scheme is referred to as the fractionally spread MC-CDMA arrangement, or FS MCCDMA. Furthermore, the FS MC-CDMA signal is additionally spread in the frequency (F)-domain using a spreading code with the aid of a number of subcarriers. In comparison to conventional MC-CDMA schemes, which are suitable for communications over frequency-selective fading channels, our study demonstrates that the proposed FS MC-CDMA is capable of efficiently exploiting both the frequency-selective and the time-selective characteristics of wireless channels. Index Terms—Broadband communications, code-division multiple access (CDMA), fractionally spreading, frequency-domain spreading, multicarrier modulation, Nakagami fading, timedomain spreading

Differentially Coherent Code Acquisition in the MIMO-Aided Multi-Carrier DS-CDMA Downlink

Both differentially coherent and non-coherent code acquisition schemes designed for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)-aided multi-carrier (MC)-DS-CDMA downlink are analysed, when communicating over uncorrelated Rayleigh channels. The attainable mean acquisition time (MAT) performance is studied as a function of both the number of multiple transmit/multiple receive antennas and that of the number of subcarriers. It is demonstrated that in contrast to the expectations, when the number of multiple transmit antennas and/or that of the subcarriers is increased in both the differentially coherent and the non-coherent code acquisition scenarios, the achievable MAT deteriorates over the entire signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) per chip (Ec/Io) range considered, except for the scenario of single-carrier (SC)-DS-CDMA using P ¼ 2 transmit antennas and R ¼ 1 receive antenna. As expected, the degree of performance degradation depends upon the specific scheme and the Ec/Io ratio considered, although paradoxically, the correctly synchronised MIMO-aided system is capable of attaining its target bit error ratio performance at reduced SINR values

An efficient approximation to the correlated Nakagami-m sums and its application in equal gain diversity receivers

There are several cases in wireless communications theory where the statistics of the sum of independent or correlated Nakagami-m random variables (RVs) is necessary to be known. However, a closed-form solution to the distribution of this sum does not exist when the number of constituent RVs exceeds two, even for the special case of Rayleigh fading. In this paper, we present an efficient closed-form approximation for the distribution of the sum of arbitrary correlated Nakagami-m envelopes with identical and integer fading parameters. The distribution becomes exact for maximal correlation, while the tightness of the proposed approximation is validated statistically by using the Chi-square and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit tests. As an application, the approximation is used to study the performance of equal-gain combining (EGC) systems operating over arbitrary correlated Nakagami-m fading channels, by utilizing the available analytical results for the error-rate performance of an equivalent maximal-ratio combining (MRC) system

Performance of Asynchronous MC-CDMA Systems with Maximal Ratio Combining in Frequency-Selective Fading Channels

The bit error rate (BER) performance of the asynchronous uplink channel of multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems with maximal ratio combining (MRC) is analyzed. The study takes into account the effects of channel path correlations in generalized frequency-selective fading channels. Closed-form BER expressions are developed for correlated Nakagami fading channels with arbitrary fading parameters. For channels with correlated Rician fading paths, the BER formula developed is in one-dimensional integration form with finite integration limits, which is also easy to evaluate. The accuracy of the derived BER formulas are verified by computer simulations. The derived BER formulas are also useful in terms of computing other system performance measures such as error floor and user capacity