BER Comparison of DS-CDMA and MC-CDMAC for Frequency Selective Fading Channels

Abstract

This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of DS-CDMA (Direct Sequence-Code Division Multiple Access) and MC-CDMA (Multi-Carrier-Code Division Multiple Access) systems in synchronous down-link mobile radio communication channels. Furthermore, the bit error rate (BER) performance is analyzed in frequency selective slow Rayleigh fading channels. We theoretically derive the BER lower bound for MC-CDMA system, and propose a simple multi-user detection method. In the BER analysis, we use the same multipath delay profiles for both DS-CDMA and MC-CDMA systems, and discuss the performance theoretically and by computer simulation. Finally, we theoretically prove that the time domain DS-CDMA Rake receiver is equivalent to the frequency domain MC-CDMA Rake receiver for the case of one user.