Area Spectral Efficiency of Soft-Decision Space-Time-Frequency Shift Keying Aided Slow Frequency Hopping Multiple Access

Slow Frequency Hopping Multiple Access (SFHMA) is capable of providing inherent frequency diversity and of beneficially randomising the effects of cochannel interference. It may also be advantageously combined with our novel Space-Time-Shift Keying (STFSK) scheme. The proposed system´s area spectral efficiency is investigated in various cellular frequency reuse structures. Furthermore, it is compared to both classic Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) aided SFHMA as well as to GMSK assisted Time Division/ Frequency Division Multiple Access (TD/FDMA). The more sophisticated third-generation Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and the fourth generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems were also included in our comparisons. We demonstrate that the area spectral efficiency of the STFSK aided SFHMA system is higher than those of the GMSK aided SFHMA and TD/FDMA systems as well as that of the WCDMA, but it is only 60% that of the LTE system.