Comparison of CDMA and OFDM Systems for Broadband Power Line Communications

Direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems are two options for broadband power line communications. In this paper, a comparison is made between the CDMA and OFDM systems. The bit error rate (BER) performance and the optimum overall data rate of the CDMA and OFDM systems are analyzed and compared, using the criteria of the same bandwidth occupation, the same transmission power for each user, the same total number of users in the system and the same power line channel. The comparison is based on the analytical models that are developed and verified by simulations.