CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW Multicarrier CDMA is a spread spectrum multiple access communication method based on the combination of multicarrier modulation and CDMA. In 1993, several multicarrier CDMA schemes were proposed in roughly the same time. Based on their spreading and modulationtypes, these schemes can be divided into three categories: multicarrierCDMA (MC-CDMA), multicarrier direct-sequence CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA) and multitone CDMA (MT-CDMA). In this thesis, we only deals with the first kind combination, i.e., MC-CDMA, which is also referred as OFDM-CDMA.OFDM-CDMA combines advantages of both OFDM and CDMA and provides an effective solution for multiuser communication over multipath channels in cellular environments.With sufficient guard interval, OFDM can completely remove ISI. Compared with orthogonal multiple-access schemes, CDMA provides an effective solution to thecross-cell MAI problem. Meanwhile due to its spread spectrum nature, CDMA is morerobust against channel fading. As so, OFDM-CDMA is highly regarded as a promisingcandidate for the implementation of the physical layer in future wireless communicationsystems. A significant amount of research work has been spent on OFDM-CDMA scheme. In wireless environments the transmitted signals may travel through different propagation paths having different lengths and hence these multi-paths components arrive at the receiverwith different delays.This time-dispersive nature of the channel causes Inter-Symbol Interference(ISI) and frequency selective fading.The RMS delay spread or multipathspread, rms, of the channel determines the amount of ISI inflicted and the gravity of the channel-induced linear distortions. The reciprocal of the delay spread, namely 1/rms = (f)c, is referred to here as the coherence bandwidth of the channel . If the total signal bandwidth is wider than (f)c, the signal experiences frequency selective fading.Typically, this is the case, when high rate data is transmitted in a wide signal bandwidth.In highly frequency selective channels the ISI becomes a major problem in serial modemsand hence usually complex channel equalisers are required. In OFDM systems the ISI becomes negligible, as long as a sufficiently high number of guard symbols is introduced .

However, due to the frequency selective nature of the channel, each subcarrier has a different bit error ratio (BER). In order to combat this phenomenon several techniques have been used in OFDM , such as error correcting codings in conjunction with frequency domain interleaving and frequency domain adaptive loading . Another traditional method of combating the effect of fading is to involve diversity techniques. The main benefit of MC-CDMA in comparison to other OFDM-based multiple access methods is the inherent provision of frequency diversity. By contrast, a disadvantage of MC-CDMA is the Multi-User Interference (MUI) encountered. These key factors predetermine the performance of MC-CDMA. When the MC-CDMA signal experiences severe channel fades, the receiver is likely tomake a wrong decision concerning the bit carried by the signal. Diversity techniques arrangefor generating several replicas of the signal arriving at the receiver over independent fadingpaths. From the family of various diversity techniques, frequency diversity, time diversity andantenna diversity are most widely used .Although both MC-CDMA and DS-CDMAuse frequency diversity, their receiver structures differ in many aspects. DS-CDMA systemsuse socalled Rake receivers and the number of fingers in the Rake receiver determinesthe number of diversity paths exploited. In most cases, the number of fingers in DS-CDMA.Rake receivers is limited due to their affordable complexity and size. MC-CDMA systems, onthe other hand, use a simpler approach, since they transmit the same information on severalsubcarriers in order to achieve diversity. The number of subcarriers transmitting the same information determines the order of diversity. Thus, in general, it is easier to achieve a higherorder diversity in MC-CDMA, than in DS-CDMA .However, the maximum achievable order of frequency diversity, L, in a specific channel is approximately given by

Where W is the total bandwidth of the channel and (f)c is its coherence bandwidth. Hence,spreading a symbol over more than this number of subcarriers is expected to have no more benefits in terms of diversity gain. Instead, as the number of users increases, the MUI will increase significantly, thus, reducing the overall performance of the MC-CDMA system.

1.2 NEED FOR CHANNEL ESTIMATION