Comparison of BCH and convolutional codes in a direct sequence spread spectrum multiple access packet radio network

The authors compute an upper bound on the packet error probability induced in a direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple access packet radio network when convolutional or BCH codes are used for the encoding of the packets. More specifically, an upper bound on the bit error probability is first developed. Then, this upper bound is used to compute upper bounds on the packet error probability for BCH codes. For convolutional codes, a simulator package has been built that makes it possible to compute upper bounds on the packet error probability by utilizing, as in the case of BCH codes, only the upper bound on the bit error probability. The simulator permits the user to enter such parameters as the constraint length, bit error probability, and decode depth of the utilized Viterbi decoder. At the end of its run the simulator produces the number and the specific positions of the bits that remained uncorrected by the Viterbi decoder from which the packet error probability can be determined