CDMA Signalling Technique Using MATLAB

Arpit Agarwal, Kajal Gupta, Surabhi Mahawar, Surbhi Singh

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT,
Shri Ram Murti Smarak College of Engineering and Technology, Bareilly(U.P.)
Gautam Buddh Technical University, Lucknow

arpitagarwal4in4@gmail.com
kajalgupta318@gmail.com
surabhimahawar@gmail.com
surbhisingh153@gmail.com

Abstract This paper evaluates the performance of CDMA since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data
signaling technique using MATLAB using various codes and bandwidth than the data being communicated.
channels. Further it includes the performance of synchronous
DS-CDMA systems over multipath fading channel and AWGN
Channel. The synchronous DS-CDMA system is well known for
eliminating the effects of multiple access interference (MAI)
which limits the capacity and degrades the BER performance of
the system. This paper investigates the bit error rate (BER)
performance of a synchronous DS-CDMA system over AWGN
and Rayleigh channel, which is affected by the different number
of users, as well as different types spreading codes. Different
MATLAB functions and MATLAB program segments are
explained for the simulation of CDMA signaling system. This Fig. 1 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
system retains the advantages of CDMA in combating multipath
and rejecting interference, and provides variable and adaptive
data rates through the use of Multi-Code scheme. The
performance improvement of the proposed system to the Multi-
Code CDMA system is shown through simulations. Walsh-
Hadamard, PN sequence and Gold codes are explored as possible
choices for multiple codes in system.

KEYWORDS CDMA system, BER, SNR, Rayleigh Channel,

AWGN channel, MATLAB program segment, PN Sequence,
Walsh-Hadamard code, Gold Sequence.

I. INTRODUCTION
Future wireless systems like 4th generation (4G)
cellular systems aim to integrate a variety of services such as Fig. 2 CDMA Forward Link Transmitter Modulation
voice, data, image, and video. These services have different
requirements on the bandwidth and the rate of transmission on
a wireless platform. To this end, future generation systems
will have to handle a variety of bit rates. Moreover, wireless
channels are characterized by multipath propagation and
multiple access interference.
One of the concepts in data communication is the
idea of allowing several transmitters to send information
simultaneously over a single communication channel. This
allows several users to share a band of frequencies. This
concept is called multiple access. CDMA employs spread-
spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each
transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be
multiplexed over the same physical channel. By contrast, time
Fig. 3 CDMA Reverse Link Receiver Demodulation
division multiple access (TDMA) divides access by time,
while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) divides it
II. CDMA SIGNALING CODES
by frequency. CDMA is a form of spread-spectrum signaling,
 To modulate a signal spread spectrum techniques are
used. Various codes that are used in spread spectrum
techniques are as:
A. Pseudo Noise Sequence
B. Walsh-Hadamard codes
C. Gold Code

A. Pseudo Noise Sequence:

PN code sequences are deterministically generated
but have properties similar to random sequences generated by
sampling a white noise process. They can be generated easily
by a linear feedback shift register, thus, only a small amount
of data must be known by transmitter and receiver. Since the
PN sequences are not orthogonal, each additional user on the
channel induces interference to the others. While there is no
hard limit for the number of users that can be accommodated,
the interference grows linearly with each additional user. It
has good auto correlation but unacceptable cross correlation.
Fig. 6 Simulation Result
C. Gold Code:
Combining two m-sequences creates Gold codes.
These codes are used in asynchronous CDMA systems. Gold
sequences are constructed from pairs of preferred m-
sequences by modulo-2 addition of two maximal sequences of
the same length.

Fig. 4 MATLAB Flowchart

Fig. 7 MATLAB Flowchart

Fig. 5 Simulation Result

B. Walsh-Hadamard codes:
These codes are orthogonal codes. It provides zero
cross correlation among all users, but only if the codes are
aligned in time or used in synchronous channels. Therefore,
CDMA systems that use these codes require synchronization
to ensure that users with different codes do not interfere with
each other. Spread substreams are transmitted over different
channels and arrive at the correlator receiver at the same time
to produce an autocorrelation peak.
Fig. 8 Simulation Result
III. DS-CDMA
Direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-
CDMA) is currently the subject of much research as it is a
promising multiple access capability for third and fourth
generations mobile communication systems. In this paper, we
introduce the Rayleigh and AWGN Channel, and investigated
the bit error rate (BER) performance of a synchronous DS-
CDMA system over these channels. In the DS-CDMA system,
the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a large
bandwidth signal, which is called the spreading of a signal.
The spreading signal is generated by convolving PN sequence
or Gold sequence code with a chip waveform whose duration
is much smaller than the symbol duration. All users in the
system use the same carrier frequency and may transmit
simultaneously. The receiver performs a correlation operation
to detect the message addressed to a given user and the signals
from other users appear as noise due to decorrelation.

Fig. 9 MATLAB Flow Chart

Fig. 10 Simulation Result

The synchronous DS-CDMA system is presented for

eliminating the effects of multiple access interference which
limits the capacity and degrades the BER performance of the
system. MAI (multiple access interference)refers to the
interference between different direct sequences.

Fig. 11 Conventional DS-CDMA Detector

1.) AWGN Channel:

Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is a channel
model in which the only impairment to communication is a
linear addition of the wideband or white noise with the
constant spectral density and a Gaussian distribution of
amplitude. The model does not account for fading, frequency For example, if a complex baseband signal is oversampled by
selectivity, interference, nonlinearity or dispersion. However, a factor of 4, then EsNo exceeds the corresponding SNR by 10
it produces simple and tractable mathematical models which log10(4).
are useful for gaining insight into the underlying behavior of a
system before these other phenomena are considered. Behaviour for Real and Complex Input Signals: The
Wideband Gaussian noise comes from many natural following figures illustrate the difference between the real and
sources, such as the thermal vibrations of atoms in complex cases by showing the noise power spectral densities
conductors, shot noise, black body radiation from the earth Sn(f) of a real band pass white noise process and its complex
and other warm objects and from celestial sources such as low pass equivalent.
the Sun. The AWGN channel is a good model for
many satellite and deep space communication links. It is not a
good model for most terrestrial links because of multipath,
terrain blocking, interference etc. However, for terrestrial path
modeling, AWGN is commonly used to simulate background
noise of the channel under study, in addition to multipath,
terrain blocking, interference and self interference that modern
radio systems encounter in terrestrial operation.

AWGN Channel Noise Level:

The relative power of noise in an AWGN channel is
typically described by quantities such as:
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per sample. This is the
actual input parameter to the AWGN function.
Ratio of bit energy to noise power spectral density
(Eb/No). This quantity is used by BER Tool and
performance evaluation functions in this toolbox.
Ratio of symbol energy to noise power spectral Fig. 12 Behaviour for Real and Complex Input Signals
density (Es/No)

Relationship between Es/No and Eb/No:

The relationship between Es/No and Eb/No, both
expressed in dB, is as follows:
Es/No(dB) = Eb/No(dB) +10log10(k)
where k is the number of information bits per symbol.
In a communication system, k might be influenced by
the size of the modulation alphabet or the code rate of an
error-control code. For example, if a system uses a rate-1/2
code and 8-PSK modulation, then the number of information
bits per symbol (k) is the product of the code rate and the
number of coded bits per modulated symbol: (1/2) log2(8) =
3/2. In such a system, three information bits correspond to six
coded bits, which in turn correspond to two 8-PSK symbols.
2.) Multipath Fading:
Multipath is simply a term used to describe the
multiple paths a radio wave may follow between transmitter
and receiver. Such propagation paths include the ground
wave, ionospheric refraction, radiation by the ionospheric
layers, reflection from the earths surface or from more than
one ionospheric layer, and so on. Fig. 13. shows a few of the
paths that a signal can travel between two sites in a typical
circuit.

Relationship between Es/No and SNR, both expressed in dB, is

as follows:
for complex input signals:
Es/No(dB) = 10log10(Tsym/Tsamp) + SNR(dB)
Fig. 13 Multipath Fading
for real input signals:
Es/No(dB) = 10log10(0.5Tsym/Tsamp) + SNR(dB)
The radio waves that are received in the phase rein
where Tsym is the signal's symbol period and Tsamp is the
force each other and produce a stronger signal at the receiving
signal's sampling period.
site, while those that are received out of the
phase produce a weak or fading signal. Small alterations in the
transmission path may change the phase relationship of the
two signals, causing periodic fading.
Multipath fading may be minimized by practices called
SPACE DIVERSITY and FREQUENCY DIVERSITY. In
space diversity, two or more receiving antennas are spaced
some distance apart. Fading does not occur
simultaneously at both antennas. Therefore, enough output is
almost always available from one of the antennas to provide a
useful signal. In frequency diversity, two transmitters and two
receivers are used, each pair tuned to a different frequency,
with the same information being transmitted simultaneously
over both frequencies. One of the two receivers will almost
always produce a useful signal.
Bit Error Rate:
In digital transmission, the number of the bit errors is the
number of the received bits of a data stream over
a communication channel that have been altered due
to noise, interference, distortion or bit synchronization errors.
The bit error rate or bit error ratio (BER) is the number of bit
errors divided by the total number of transferred bits during a
studied time interval. BER is a unit less performance measure,
often expressed as a percentage.
Bit Error Probability:
The bit error probability Pe is the expectation value of the
BER. The BER can be considered as an approximate estimate
of the bit error probability. This estimate is accurate for a long
time interval and a high number of bit errors.
IV. DETECTION TECHNIQUES
Different detection techniques employed in the
proposed complementary codes (CC) based CDMA system
used to detect the received signal. Detection techniques are as:
A. Maximum Ration Combing Technique:
In Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC), the signal
all the branches are co-phased and individually weighed to
provide the optimal SNR at the output. It can be shown that
the output SNR is maximized when the signals in each of the
diversity branches are weighed by their own envelopes. In
case of a two-fold diversity scheme, the combining equation is
given by:
Zk = r1kZ1k + r2kZ2k
Fig. 14 Maximum Ration Combing Technique
B. Selection Diversity Technique:
Selection Diversity is one of the simplest diversity
techniques. The receiver simply picks the signal with the
largest SNR as given in figure.
Fig. 15 Selection Diversity Technique
In the case of a two-fold diversity, the diversity combining
strategy for selective combining is given by:
Zk = Z1k, if |Z1k| > |Z2k|
Z2k, if |Z2k| > |Z1k|
where, Z1k and Z2k are decision variables at the first and
second diversity paths and Zk is the decision variable at the
output of the diversity combiner. Let be the threshold SNR
that must achieved for proper demodulation and detection of
the received signal. Let there be L diversity branches and let k
be the instantaneous SNR for the kth branch. Using the
expression for the pdf for the instantaneous SNR we can get
an expression for the outage probability (probability that the
SNR falls below the threshold) for all the branches as:
P(y1,.,yL) = (1-e-/y`c)L
where, y`c is the average SNR at every diversity branch,
assuming all the branches have the same
average SNR. It is given by:
y`c = (Eb/No)E{R2}
The improvement in the SNR due to selective combining is
evident from above equation.
C. Equal Ration Combing Technique:
In Equal Gain Combining (EGC), all the received
signals are co-phased at the receiver and added together
without any weighting. The performance of EGC is only
marginally inferior to the optimal maximal ratio combiner. In
case of a two-fold diversity scheme, the combining equation is
given by:
Zk = Z1k + Z2k

Fig. 16
Equal Ration Combing Technique
After analysis, the diversity technique that produces the
lowest BER rate would be the best technique to be the
proposed detection techniques for complementary codes based
CDMA system. Thus the transmitter, channel and
complementary code design must be constant. The only
difference is between their receivers that employs the different
detection techniques.
V. COMPARISON OF THE PERFORMANCE OF DSSS
AND FHSS USING MATLAB
Spread spectrum is a group of techniques that utilizes
a much larger bandwidth in transmitting information than
would otherwise occupy a fraction of the bandwidth used.
This is done to achieve a certain effect. FHSS and DSSS,
which stand for Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum and
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, are two spread spectrum
techniques. The main difference is in how they spread the data
into the wider bandwidth. FHSS utilizes frequency hopping
while DSSS utilizes pseudo noise to modify the phase of the
signal.
Frequency hopping is achieved by dividing the large
bandwidth into smaller channels that would fit the data. The
signal would then be sent pseudo-randomly into a different
channel. Because only one of the channels is in use at any
given time, we are actually wasting bandwidth equivalent to
the data bandwidth multiplied by the number of channels
minus one. DSSS spreads the information across the band in a
very different manner. It does so by introducing pseudo-
random noise into the signal to change its phase at any given
time. This results in an output that closely resembles static
noise and would appear as just that to others. But with a
process called de-spreading, the original signal can be
extracted from the noise as long as the pseudo-random
sequence is known.
In order for the receiver to decode the transmitted
information, it must be synchronized with the transmitter. For
FHSS it is relatively easy as the transmitter simply waits on
one of the channels and waits for a decodable transmission.
Once it finds that out, it can then follow the sequence being
used to follow the transmitter which jumps across the different
channels. With DSSS, it is not as simple. A timing search
algorithm needs to be employed for the receiver to correctly
establish synchronization.
A side effect of de spreading is its ability to establish
relative timing between the receiver and transmitter. With
multiple transmitters that are in known locations, the relative
timing can be used to establish the relative distances of the
receiver from each transmitter. This is the working principle
behind positioning systems like GPS. Since the receiver can
calculate how far it is from each transmitting satellite, it is
then able to triangulate its location. This ability is not present
is FHSS.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper work emphasize on those effects that have
a strong influence on the performance of CDMA system like
walsh-code and gold sequence. According to the result
obtained, we have found a good CDMA transmitter behavior
in the terms of auto correlation and cross correlation
properties. The modulated data when transmitted in the
channel is subjected to AWGN and multipath fading effect. In
this, comparison would be carried out in the received signal
between the received data bit stream and the transmit data bit
stream in terms of BER. This paper also includes the
performance comparison of CDMA system using various
diversity techniques. Further this would be extended to
evaluate comparison of the performance of DSSS and FHSS
in CDMA system.
VII. FUTURE SCOPE
Work presented in this paper can be extended to
evaluate the performance of Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM) Transmitter and Receiver System.
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[7.] http://www.differencebetween.net
[8.] www.mathswork.com.3