Performance of Broadband Multicarrier DS-CDMA using Space-Time Spreading-Assisted Transmit Diversity

In this contribution multicarrier direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (MC DS-CDMA) using space–time spreading (STS)-assisted transmit diversity is investigated in the context of broadband communications over frequency-selective Rayleigh-fading channels. We consider the issue of parameter design for the sake of achieving high-efficiency communications in various dispersive environments. Furthermore, in contrast to conventional MC DS-CDMA schemes employing time (T)-domain spreading only, in this contribution we also investigate broadband MC DS-CDMA schemes employing both T-domain and frequency (F)-domain spreading, i.e., employing TF-domain spreading. The bit-error rate (BER) performance of STS-assisted broadband MC DS-CDMA is investigated for downlink transmissions associated with the correlation based single-user detector and the decorrelating multiuser detector. Our study demonstrated that when appropriately selecting the system parameters, broadband MC DS-CDMA using STS-assisted transmit diversity constitutes a promising downlink transmission scheme. This scheme is capable of supporting ubiquitous communications over diverse communication environments without BER performance degradation. Index Terms—Broadband system, code-division multiple access (CDMA), frequency-domain spreading, frequency-selective fading, multicarrier direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (MC-DS-CDMA), multicarrier CDMA, multicarrier modulation, multiuser detection, space–time spreading (STS), transmit diversity