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May 28-June1, 2001

R. Z. Ziemer, Colorado Springs, CO

Outline
I. History of Spread Spectrum
II. Spread Spectrum System Model
III. Spread Spectrum Classification
IV. Spread Spectrum Techniques

History of Spread Spectrum

Spread Spectrum was actually invented
by 1940s Hollywood actress Hedy
Lamarr(1913-2000).
An Austrian refugee, in 1940 at the age of
26, she devised together with music
composer George Antheil a system to stop
enemy detection and jamming of radio
controlled torpedoes by hopping around a
set of frequencies in a random fashion.
She was granted a patent in 1942 (US pat.
2292387)
but
considered
it
her
contribution to the war effort and never
profited.
Techniques known since 1940s and used in
military communication systems since
1950s.

Introduction to Spread Spectrum

Spread radio signal over a wide frequency range
Several magnitudes higher than minimum requirement
Gained popularity by the needs of military communication
Proved resistant against hostile jammers
Ratio of information bandwidth and spreading bandwidth is
identified as spreading gain or processing gain
Processing gain does not combat white Noise

Offers the following applications:

able to deal with multi-path
multiple access due to different spreading sequences
spreading sequence design is very important for
performance
low probability of interception
privacy
anti-jam capabilities

Spread Spectrum Applications

Interference
Prevents interference at specific frequencies
E.g. other radio users, electrical systems
Military
Prevents signal jamming
Scrambling of secret messages
Wireless LAN security
Prevents eavesdropping of wireless links
Prevents hacking into wireless LANs
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
Multiple separate channels in same medium using different
spreading codes

System Model:
Spread Spectrum Transmission

Spread Spectrum Criteria

A communication system is considered a spread spectrum system if it
satisfies the following two criteria:
Bandwidth of the spread spectrum signal has to be greater than the
information bandwidth. (This is also true for frequency and pulse
code modulation!)
The spreading sequence has to be independent from the
information. Thus, no possibility to calculate the information if the
sequence is known and vice versa.

Spread Spectrum Classification

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

Information signal is directly modulated (multiplicated) by
a spreading sequences (see next slide)
Spreading sequence consists of chips each with a
duration of tchip
A set of chips represent a bit; the exact number of chips
per bit equals the spreading gain
Near far effect
Require continuous bandwidth

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Example

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R. Z. Ziemer, Colorado Springs, CO

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Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum:

Transmission Technique

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

Transmitter

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Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

Receiver

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Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Using BPSK

Example

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Approximate
Spectrum of
DSSS Signal

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

The information signal is transmitted on different frequencies
Time is divided in slots
Each slot the frequency is changed
The change of the frequency is referred to as slow if more than
one bit is transmitted on one frequency, and as fast if one bit is
transmitted over multiple frequencies
The frequencies are chosen based on the spreading sequences

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

(FHSS)

May 28-June1, 2001

R. Z. Ziemer, Colorado Springs, CO

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Frequency selection in FHSS

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FHSS cycles

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Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

Bandwidth sharing

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Time Hopping Spread Spectrum

Time divided into frames; each TF long
Each frame is divided in slots
Each wireless terminal send in exactly one of these slots per
frame regarding the spreading sequence
No near far effect

Comparison of different Spread Spectrum

Techniques

SS Technique
Direct Sequence

Frequency
Hopper

Time Hopper

advantage
best behavior in multi
path rejection
no synchronization
simple implementation
difficult to detect
no need for coherent
bandwidth
less affected by the near
far effect
high bandwidth
efficiency
less complex hardware
less affected by the
near far effect

disadvantage
near far effect
coherent bandwidth

complex hardware
error correction
needed
error correction
needed

The Idea

In MCM , we split the data in to different streams and transmit

using separate Sub Carriers.

DS-CDMA

Figure: The Principle of DS-CDMA