SPREAD SPECTRUM

THE CONCEPT OF SPREAD

SPECTRUM
Spread Spectrum

 Is important form of encoding method designed

for wireless communications.
 Can be used to transmit either analog or digital
data using analog signal
 Concept or basic idea
 To modulate a signal so as to increase significantly
the bandwidth (spread spectrum) of the signals to be
transmitted
 Makes jamming and interception harder.
 Two approaches, both in use:
 Frequency hopping spread spectrum
 Direct sequence spread spectrum
SPREAD SPECTRUM

 Spreading basically handles Spread Spectrum: also combines

signals from different sources to fit into a larger bandwidth though with a
different goal of privacy and anti jamming to be achieved.
 It is designed to be used in wireless applications LANs and WANs. The
challenge is to have air as a medium transmitting information/ signal
without interception (by an eavesdropper) or being subject to jamming (by
malicious intruder, military operations).
 To achieve this spread spectrum spreads original spectrum needed for
each station as well as adding redundancy. In that, if the required
bandwidth for each station, spread spectrum expands it to Bss in that Bss
>>B. Extended bandwidth allows the source to wrap its message in a
protective manner for more secure transmission.

Ways in which spread spectrum achieves this:

 The bandwidth allocated to each station needs to be by far larger than

what is needed so as to enhance redundancy (by adding redundancy, the
spread spectrum spreads the original spectrum needed for each station).
 Spreading of signal after it is created by the source. That is,
expanding of the original bandwidth B to Bss must be done by a process
independent of the original bandwidth.
Spread spectrum

Figure 1
General Model of Spread Spectrum System

Figure 2
Pseudorandom Numbers

 Generated by a deterministic algorithm using an

initial value called a seed.
 Algorithm produces a sequence of numbers
 The numbers are not statistically random
 But if algorithm good, results pass reasonable tests of
randomness
 Starting from an initial seed
 Need to know algorithm and seed to predict
sequence
 Hence only receiver can decode signal
Spread Spectrum - Advantages

 Several advantages can be gained from this

apparent waste of spectrum by this approach
 Immunity from noise and multipath distortion
 Can hide / encrypt signals
 Several users can share same higher bandwidth with
little interference
 CDM/CDMA mobile telephones
FREQUENCY-HOPPING SPREAD
SPECTRUM
Frequency hopping spread spectrum
(FHSS)

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum:

technique uses M different carrier frequencies
that are modulated by the source signal. At one
moment, the signal modulates one carrier
frequency; at the next moment, the signal
modulates another carrier frequency.
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

 Signal is broadcast over seemingly random series

of frequencies
 Receiver hops between frequencies in sync with
transmitter
 Eavesdroppers hear unintelligible blips

 Jamming on one frequency affects only a few bits

Frequency Hopping - Example

Figure 3
FHSS (Transmitter)

Figure 4
FHSS Transmitter

 For transmission, binary data is fed into a

modulator using some digital-to-analog encoding
scheme such as Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) or
Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)
 The resulting signal is centered on some base
frequency
 Pseudonoise (PN) or pseudorandom number,
source serves as an index into a table of
frequencies
 Each k bits of the PN source specifies one of the 2k
carrier frequencies
 At each successive interval, each k PN bits, a new
carrier frequency is selected.
FHSS Receiver

Figure 5

On reception, the spread spectrum signal is demodulated using the

same sequence of PN-derived frequencies and then demodulated to
produce the output data.
Frequency selection in FHSS

Figure 6
Frequency selection in FHSS

 The pattern for this station is 101, 111, 001, 000, 010, all,
100. Note that the pattern is pseudorandom it is repeated
after eight hoppings.
 This means that at hopping period 1, the pattern is 101.
The frequency selected is 700 kHz; the source signal
modulates this carrier frequency.
 The second k-bit pattern selected is 111, which selects the
900-kHz carrier; the eighth pattern is 100, the frequency is
600 kHz.
 After eight hoppings, the pattern repeats, starting from
101 again.
 Figure shows how the signal hops around from carrier to
carrier. We assume the required bandwidth of the original
signal is 100 kHz.
FHSS cycles

Figure 7
FHSS cycles
 It can be shown that this scheme can accomplish
the previously mentioned goals.
 If there are many k-bit patterns and the hopping
period is short, a sender and receiver can have
privacy. If an intruder tries to intercept the
transmitted signal, she can only access a small piece
of data because she does not know the spreading
sequence to quickly adapt herself to the next hop.
 The scheme has also an antijamming effect. A
malicious sender may be able to send noise to jam the
signal for one hopping period (randomly), but not for
the whole period.
Bandwidth sharing FDM & FHSS
Figure 8

In FDM, each station uses the In FHSS, each station uses the
bandwidth, but the allocation is bandwidth, but the allocation
fixed. changes hop to hop.
Slow and Fast FHSS

 Commonly use multiple FSK (MFSK)

 Have frequency shifted every TC seconds

 Duration of signal element is TS seconds

 Slow FHSS has TC  TS

 Fast FHSS has TC < TS

 FHSS quite resistant to noise or jamming

 With fast FHSS giving better performance
Slow MFSK FHSS

Figure 9
Fast MFSK FHSS

Figure 10
DIRECT SEQUENCE SPREAD
SPECTRUM
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum:

Technique expands the bandwidth of the original

signal. It replaces each data bit with n bits using
a spreading code.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

 Each bit is represented by multiple bits using a

spreading code
 This spreads signal across a wider frequency
band
 Has performance similar to FHSS
DSSS

Figure 11
DSSS example

Figure 12
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (Example)

Figure 13
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum System

Figure 14
DSSS Example Using BPSK

Figure 15
Approximate Spectrum of DSSS Signal

Figure 16
CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS
Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)

 A multiplexing technique used with spread

spectrum
 Given a data signal rate D

 Break each bit into k chips according to a fixed

chipping code specific to each user
 Resulting new channel has chip data rate kd
chips per second
 Can have multiple channels superimposed
CDMA - Example

Figure 17
CDMA for DSSS

Figure 18
Summary

Looked at use of spread spectrum techniques:

 FHSS

 DSSS

 CDMA
References:

 By Behrouz A. Forouzan, Data communications

and networking, chapter 6.