Performance of multicarrier DS CDMA systems

In this paper, we apply a multicarrier signaling technique to a direct-sequence CDMA system, where a data sequence multiplied by a spreading sequence modulates multiple carriers, rather than a single carrier. The receiver provides a correlator for each carrier, and the outputs of the correlators are combined with a maximal-ratio combiner. This type of signaling has the desirable properties of exhibiting a narrowband interference suppression effect, along with robustness to fading, without requiring the use of either an explicit RAKE structure or an interference suppression filter. We use bandlimited spreading waveforms to prevent self-interference, and we evaluate system performance over a frequency selective Rayleigh channel in the presence of partial band interference; we also compare system performance with that of a single-carrier RAKE system.