Performance of Noncoherent Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum Multiple-Access Communications

The performance of noncoherent reception in direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple-access communications systems is investigated for additive white Gaussian noise channels. Analytical and numerical results on the probability of error are presented for binary and -ary frequency-shift-keying data modulation with noncoherent demodulation and differential-phase-shift-keying data modulation with differentiallycoherent demodulation. Both synchronous and asynchronous systems are analyzed. Systems which employ deterministic as well as random signature sequences are considered. The multiple access capability of noncoherent DS/SS systems is evaluated and compared to that of coherent DS/SS systems with the same parameters. The comparison shows that the loss in the performance of DS/SSMA systems due to noncoherent reception can be considerably larger than the loss incurred to noncoberent single-user systems operating in additive Gaussian noise.