<title>Asynchronous spread spectrum communication paradigm for use in low-power applications: description and simulation results</title>

Abstract

Contemporary wireless communication strategies focus on efficient use of bandwidth in order to allow more users to exploit the RF spectrum through techniques like Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (SS) and Direct-sequence SS. In many real-world applications, these methods are implemented for synchronous communication systems. To achieve synchronous communication, two-way handshaking that requires overhead circuitry is performed between the sender and receiver. In order to use spread spectrum methods for certain unconstrained and low-power applications, such as implantable and remote monitoring devices, it is necessary to refine these methods to support asynchronous communication. We have designed and modeled a SS system, which could be integrated with a custom integrated circuit that would provide elementary multi-user communication. The SS logic generates a gold-code based on address and data bits that is then modulated with a carrier to transmit the information. Because the system is asynchronous, we treat each transmitted code as an independent piece of information. The receiver decodes the information using a full correlation with the ideal known gold-codes. For efficiency purposes, the filter is applied in the frequency domain. A threshold is applied to the output of the filter to determine if a particular code is transmitted as well as the point in time/space from which the signal was sent. The method was simulated and evaluated under several scenarios including different carrier frequencies, multiple targets, and various positions relative to the receiver from the simulated receiver. The results demonstrate the utility of asynchronous SS under many different conditions.