Multitone spread spectrum multiple access communications system in a multipath Rician fading channel

The paper proposes a new multiple access communications system based on the combination of multitone transmission and direct sequence spectrum spreading (DS/SS). Multitone transmission is proposed because the associated larger symbol duration is favorable to combat the effects of multipath propagation. The multiple access capability of the system is achieved by means of DS/SS which also helps to combat the presence of several paths. On the other hand, DS/SS is also attractive to decrease the multiple access interference. The performance of this system is investigated for a multipath, slowly Rician fading and frequency selective channel, and a suboptimal receiver based on matched filters. The multiple access interference is also taken into account, A model for the computation of the bit error probability is derived for QPSK modulation of the orthogonal tones by the spread symbols. The system performance is investigated for selection diversity and maximal ratio combining (RAKE reception). Then the influence of the number of tones is investigated for given bandwidth, bit rate and transmission power. The positive effect of a multitone spread spectrum transmission is demonstrated