0

MC-CDMA with Quadrature Spreading for Wireless

Communication Systems
Slimane Ben Slimane

Radio Communication Systems

Department of Signals, Sensors, and Systems
Royal Institute of Technology
S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 790 9353, Fax +46 8 790 9370, Email: slimane@radio.kth.se

Abstract
Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) systems using the Orthogonal Frequency
Division Division Multiple Access (OFDM) technique resolve the frequency selectivity in multipath fading channels and have good spectral properties. The
addition of a spread spectrum component to the OFDM introduces a frequency
diversity gain that can combat deep multipath fading situations.
In this paper a MC-CDMA system operating over frequency selective, slowly
fading channels is considered and its performance is studied analytically and by
computer simulations. We consider the downlink of a cellular radio system where
for each user a BPSK modulation and a quadrature (complex) spreading code is
used. The spreading codes are arranged in a way that reduces the eect of the
multipath fading channel and restores some of the orthogonality losses between
users. The obtained results show considerable performance improvement compared
to conventional OFDM and to MC-CDMA that uses single spreading codes. The
eect of frequency osets on the system performance is also addressed in this
paper.
Its superior performance and low complexity receiver make MC-CDMA with
quadrature spreading codes suitable for future wireless communication systems to
achieve the requirements of high quality services, high speed, and low cost-receiver.

I. Introduction

In mobile radio communication systems, the system capacity and performance are limited by the multipath fading channel. The most common approach in dealing with this
channel eect is by means of diversity and equalization where the system tries to exploits
the multipath fading channel. Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) techniques have such
capability and can be eciently used for such applications.
A number of Multi-Carrier techniques based on the combination of OFDM modulation
and spread spectrum have been proposed [1, 2, 3, 4]. The scheme considered in this paper
and referred to as MC-CDMA is the one where each information symbol is spread in frequency with all its chips transmitted simultaneously on dierent frequencies [3, 4]. In this
scheme, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is rst used
to reduce Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) by dividing the broad bandwidth into narrowband subcarriers and thus resolving the frequency selectivity of the channel. Orthogonal
spreading codes are then used to create redundancy and increase the diversity gain of the
system. Orthogonal codes are easily generated using Hadamard matrices. However, the
biggest challenge is to preserve such orthogonality after the transmitted signal has gone
through the channel. Orthogonality loss creates crosstalk between users and introduces
Multi-User Interference (MUI). If the receiver does not take that into account, the system
performance will experience an error oor that cannot be reduced by just increasing the
transmitted power.
Many MC-CDMA detectors have been proposed in the literature. The simplest is a
conventional correlator detector where after the OFDM demodulator the receiver equalizes the phase (coherent detection) at each subcarrier followed by despreading and harddecision detection. Such a detector does not restore orthogonality between users and thus
its performance is dependent on the amplitude response of the multipath fading channel.
A possible improvement is to equalize both phase and amplitude of the fading channel
at each subcarrier. This detector has been called Orthogonality Restoring Correlation
(ORC) detector [3, 4]. It does eliminate the multi-user interference, but at the expense
of a noise amplication. To reduce this noise amplication, a number of detectors have
been introduced. A correlator detector with Threshold (TORC) has been studied in [5,

6], a TORC with iterative detection in [7] and with multi-stage detection in [8]. These
detectors reduce the multi-user interference but their performance depends on the chosen
threshold. The optimum receiver for MC-CDMA is based on the Maximum Likelihood
Sequence Estimation (MLSE) [4]. However, its complexity increases exponentially with
the number of users. As shown in [7, 9], this complexity can be reduced if the transmitted
signals of all users are grouped in smaller blocks. All detectors that have been proposed
and studied consider single spreading codes. Complex spreading codes are usually used to
combat intentional jamming by forcing the jammer to split its power between the quadrature components of the carrier signal [10]. For MC-CDMA systems, quadrature spreading
can be used to reduce the eects of multipath fading and reduce interference from other
users.
In this paper a MC-CDMA system that uses quadrature spreading codes is investigated.
With quadrature spreading codes a diversity gain can be obtained and the interference
from other users can be reduced. The system performance over frequency selective, slowly
fading channels is evaluated for two simple detectors. A correlator detector with phase
equalization only and a correlator detector with zero forcing equalization (phase and amplitude equalization). The obtained results show that quadrature spreading codes is an
ecient way to reduce the eect of multipath fading channels in MC-CDMA systems and
improve their performance.
This paper is organized as follows: In section II brief descriptions of the system model
and the channel model are given, followed by the receiver model and performance analysis.
In section IV, the impact of frequency errors on the system performance is investigated.
Simulation results are presented in section V and compared with the analytical results.
Section VI gives conclusions and some discussions.
II. System Model

A. Transmitter Model

We consider a MC-CDMA for the downlink of a cellular radio system where the signals of
the dierent users are transmitted synchronously through the multipath fading channel.
The transmitter block diagram of the system which consists of Nu users is shown in

Figure 1. The modulation process is the same for all users where the input data is rst
modulated in baseband using BPSK, multiplied by the spreading sequence of the user, and
then modulated using an OFDM modulator. The signals from all users are then combined
and transmitted. The system uses orthogonal Walsh-Hadamard spreading codes. Each
user code is arranged in a quadrature format as shown in Figure 1, where the code on
the quadrature side is just the reverse of that of the in-phase side. The choice of such an
arrangement will become clear in the following.
The MC-CDMA transmitted signal can be written as follows:

o
n
x(t) = Re xl (t)ej fct ;
2

(1)

where fc is the carrier frequency and xl (t) is the equivalent lowpass of x(t),

xl (t) =
with

NX
?1
m=0

smej  Tb t;
2

(k ? 1)T  t ? Tb  kT;

NX
u?
sm = 2ETb
(cm;n + jcN ? ?m;n)an; m = 0; 1;


; N ? 1;
n
1

=0

(2)

(3)

is the transmitted signal at subcarrier m, cm;n are elements of a Walsh-Hadamard orthogonal code of length N (assumed the same as the total number of subcarriers), with
jcm;nj = p1 ;
N
an = 1, with equal probability, is the information bit from user n during the OFDM
block kT , and Eb is the energy per bit. Tb is the eective block duration, and T ? Tb = Tg
is a guard time interval inserted between consecutive OFDM blocks to minimize the eect
of the delay spread of the channel.
B. Channel Model

The mobile radio channel can be represented at the baseband by the lowpass equivalent
complex impulse response function [11]

(t) =

PX
?1
i=0

iej i (t ? i );

(4)

where i ej i and i are the weight coecient and the relative time delay for the ith path,
respectively. P represents the number of resolvable paths.
The amplitudes i are assumed mutually uncorrelated Rayleigh distributed with probability density function (pdf)
fi (x) = 2px e?x2 =pi ; x  0;
i
P
P
?
where pi = E [i ] and i pi = 1. The phases i are mutually independent random
variables uniformly distributed over the interval [0; 2).
In the expression of (t) we have assumed a slowly varying fading channel with a Doppler
frequency very small compared to the subcarrier width, 1=Tb.
2

1
=0

III. Receiver Model

The received signal, which consists of the sum of all signal paths plus the additive white
Gaussian noise having a two sided power spectral density N =2, is rst down-converted to
baseband using a local oscillator (fl = fc) giving
0

r(t) =

PX
?1
i=0

iej

i +) x (t

? i) + z(t);

where  is the phase of the local oscillator and z(t) is a complex Gaussian process. The
signal r(t) is then passed through the OFDM demodulator. For a guard interval larger
that the maximum delay spread of the channel, the received sample at the mth subcarrier
is free of Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) (or Inter-Chip Interference (ICI)) and is given by
Z Tb
m
r(t)e?j  Tb tdt
rm = p1
Tb q
= hm ejm Tb sm + zm ;
(5)
2

where sm is as dened in (3), zm is a complex Gaussian random variable with zero mean,
and

hm ejm =

PX
?1
i=0

ie?j

mi =Tb ? i ?)

(2

(6)

is the multiplicative channel coecient of subcarrier m. From (4), it is observed that the
amplitude hm is Rayleigh distributed with probability density function (pdf)

fh(x) = 2xe?x2 ; x  0;

(7)

with E [hm ] = 1 and the phase m is uniformly distributed with pdf

p(x) = 21 ; 0  x < 2:
We further assume independent Rayleigh fading in each subcarrier.
Let us consider the N samples at the output of the OFDM demodulator. Eq. (5) can
be written in a matrix form as follows:
s
r = E2e HCa + z; with Ee = TTb Eb;
(8)
where r = [r ; r ;


; rN ? ]T is the received vector, H = diagfh ej0 ; h ej1 ;


; hN ? ejN ?1 g,
is a diagonal matrix,
2

2
N ? ;


c ;N ? + jcN ? ;N ?
66 c ; + jc
.
...
...
..
C = 664
cN ? ; + jc ;


cN ? ;N ? + jc ;N ?
00

10

10

00

3
77
77 ;
5

(9)

is an N  N square matrix of the quadrature spreading codes, a is the data information

bit vector from all users, and z is a vector of complex Gaussian random variables with
zero mean and variance N =2.
0

A. The MC-CDMA Detector

Consider the following two elements of the received vector r in (8),

s Nu?
X
rm = hm ejm E2e
(cm;k + jcN ? ?m;k ) ak + zm;
k
s Nu?
X
j
(cN ? ?m;k + jcm;k ) ak + zN ? ?m ;
rN ? ?m = hN ? ?m e N ?1?m E2e
k
As these elements carry the same information we can combine them before despreading
the signal. In the following we consider two combing techniques: Equal Gain Combining
(EGC) and Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC).
1

=0

=0

A.1 Equal Gain Combining

With equal gain combining the receiver equalizes the phase angle of each element and
then combines each pair as follows:

o
o
n
n
vm = Re rm e?jm + Im rN ? ?m e?jN ?1?m
1

q NX
u?
= m Ee
cm;k ak + zm0 ;
1

h0

(10)

k=0

o
o
n
n
vN ? ?m = Im rme?jm + Re rN ? ?m e?jN ?1?m
q NX
u?
cN ? ?m;k ak + zN0 ? ?m ;
= h0m Ee
1

k=0

(11)

where zm0 is a Gaussian random variable with zero mean and variance N and
h0m = hm +phN ? ?m ; m = 0; 1;


; N=2 ? 1;
2
having as pdf
0


p 
fh0 (x) = 2xe? x2 +  2x ? 1 e?x2 erf(x);
2

(12)

x  0;

with erf(
) representing the error function.

Dening a vector v = [v ; v ;


; vN ? ]T , (10) and (11) can be rewritten in a matrix
form,
0

v = EeH0C0a + z0;

(13)

where H0 = diagfh0 ; h0 ;


; h0N= ? ; h0N= ? ;


; h0 ; h0 g, and

0

2
66 c .;


c ;N. ?
..
C0 = 664 .. . . .
cN ? ;


cN ? ;N ?
00

10

3
77
77
5

(14)

is the N  N square matrix whose columns are the single spreading codes.
Notice that after combining the fading coecient of subcarrier m becomes the same as
that of subcarrier N ? 1 ? m. This feature is very suitable for systems using Hadamard
codes since half of the multi-user interference will be automatically cancelled.
A.2 Maximal Ratio Combining
With maximal ratio combining the two elements vm and vN ? ?m of the vector v are
obtained as:
1

o
o
n
n
vm = Re rm hm e?jm + Im rN ? ?mhN ?m? e?jN ?1?m
q NX
u?
 h0m Ee cm;k ak + zm0 ;
1

k=0

o
o
n
n
vN ? ?m = Im rmhm e?jm + Re rN ? ?mhN ? ?m e?jN ?1?m
q NX
u?
 h0m Ee cN ? ?m;k ak + zN0 ? ?m ;
1

k=0

where zm0 is Gaussian with variance N and the multiplicative factor h0m is now given by
0

q
h0m = hm + hN ? ?m; m = 0; 1;


; N=2 ? 1;
2

with its pdf given by

(15)

fh0 (x) = 2x e?x2 ; x  0:

3

Once the vector v is obtained, the receiver equalizes the channel (Zero Forcing Equalizer (ZFE)) by multiplying vm by the inverse of the new channel coecient h0m, or

y = EeH0? H0C0a + H0? z0:

1

The information bit for user n is then extracted by despreading the vector y with the code
cn = [c ;n; c ;n;


; cN ? ;n] followed by a hard-decision detector
0

a^n = sgn fcn
yg :

A simplied block diagram of the MC-CDMA receiver is shown in Figure 2.
For the detection of MC-CDMA signals with quadrature spreading codes, the new channel coecient prior to the equalizer is the sum of two fading amplitudes. In this case
the noise enhancement after equalization is reduced as compared to the case when single
spreading codes are used. As shown in Figure 3, by using quadrature spreading the probability of having a noise enhancement (P (hm < 1)) is reduced from 63% to 31% for the
EGC case and only 27% for the MRC case.
This noise enhancement can be further reduced if a Minimum Mean Square Error
(MMSE) equalizer is used [11]. That is, multiplying vm by
h0m ;
h0m + z0 =a
where z0 is the variance of the noise and a is the variance of the transmitted data. In
the following, the average bit error probability for bit an of user n, 0  n  Nu ? 1; is
evaluated for the ZFE case. Both MRC and EGC will be considered.
2

B. Performance Analysis

Consider the detection of the information bit of user n during a given OFDM block
interval kT . Assuming a zero forcing equalizer, the despreaded signal can be written as

cn
y = an Ee +

N=X
2?1
cn;izi0 + cn;N ?1?izN0 ?1?j
:
h0i
i=0

The decision is then made based on the sign of the above expression. A wrong decision is
made if this sign is dierent from that of an .
The conditional bit error probability of the system for a given Channel State Information
(CSI) vector, h0 = (h0 ; h0 ;


; h0N= ? ), can be written as
0

0v
u Ee
BBu
1
N
0
P (errorjh ) = 2 erfc @u
t 4N PN= ?
i
2
=0

h0i 2

1
CC
A;

(16)

where erfc(
) is the complementary error function. The elements of h0 are as given in (12)
for EGC or as in (15) for MRC.
Dening a new random variable h0min as



h0min = min h0 ; h0 ;


; h0N= ? ;
0

we can write the following inequality

0
1?
h0min  @N=X? 1 A  h0 :
min
N=2
h0i
i
2

=0

(17)

The above inequality can be used to derive two bounds (upper and lower) on the average
bit error probability of the system. The lower limit in (17) is obtained only when all h0i 's
have the same value. Under uncorrelated fading, the probability of such an event occurring
is very close to zero for large values of N . The corresponding bound (upper bound) is
then expected to be loose and is given here for illustration only.
Using (17) we can write
PL  Pb  PU ;
where

PL =

Z
0

11

2 erfc

!
E
e
Nx 4N fh0min (x)dx;
2

(18)

s
!
E
e
PU =
(19)
f 0 (x)dx:
erfc x
2
2N hmin
The function fh0min (
) is the pdf of the random variable h0min and is given by [12]
f 0 (x) = N [1 ? F 0 (x)]N= ? f 0 (x);
(20)
Z

11

hmin

where fh0 (
) is the pdf of h0 and

Fh0 (x) =

Zx
0

fh0 (t)dt

is its distribution function.

After some simplications the two bounds can be written as a function of a single integral

q
PL = ? N NEe0 IN
q
PU = ? NEe0 I ;
1
2

(21)

1
2

where

Z 1 2
h
iN
p
1
e?x iEe= N0 e? x2 + xe?x2 erf(x) 2 dx
Ii = p
2
if equal gain combining is used or
Z 1 2
iN
h
e?x iEe= N0 e?x2 + x e?x2 2 dx
Ii = p1
2
if maximal ratio combining is used.
+

IV. Effects of Frequency Errors on the Performance

In MC-CDMA systems using OFDM modulation, frequency asynchronism destroys the

orthogonality between subcarriers and therefore introduces ICI and MUI into the system.
In this section we consider the eects of frequency errors on the performance of MC-CDMA
systems over additive white Gaussian noise and multipath fading channels.
Let us assume a local oscillator frequency given by

fl = f c + fD ;
where fD is a constant frequency oset with jfD Tbj  1.

10

The received sample at the mth subcarrier, given in (5), becomes

q
rm = ej fD Tb  sinc(fD Tb)hm ejm Tb sm
NX
? q
Tbsiej fD Tb  sinc(fD Tb) 1 +1i?m hieji + zm ;
+
(

+ )

(22)

+ )

fD Tb

i=0

i6=m

where  is the phase of the local oscillator and sinc(x) = sin(x)=(x).

We notice that due to the frequency oset, each transmitted symbol is rotated by an
angle of fD T + . The above expression also shows that all symbols within a block
are attenuated and interfere with each other. For a constant frequency oset, the phase
rotation is the same for all symbols and can be estimated. After phase equalization the
received vector becomes
s
r = sinc (fD Tb) E2e FHCa + z;
where F is an N  N square matrix representing the eect of the frequency oset and is
given by

F = [fij ] ;

(23)

where

fij = f TfD+Tjb ? i ej j ?i :

(24)
D b
The matrices H and C are as previously dened.
The vector v is then constructed following the same procedure as described in section 3.
With equal gain combining or maximal ratio combining, the vector v takes the following
form:
q 0 0
(25)
v = sinc (fD Tb ) Ee F C a + z0;
(

where C0, a, z0 are as dened in (13), and

h i

F0 = fij0
with
0

fij

(26)

#
"
f
T
h
sin(

?

)
h
cos(

?

)
D
b
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
j
i
j
j
i
= p
? f T ?j?i+N ?1
2 fD" Tb + j ? i
D b
#
h
sin(

?

)
h
cos(

?

)
f
T
j
j
N
?
?
i
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
i
D
b
+ p f T +j+i?N +1 +
fD Tb ? j + i
2 D b
1

11

for the equal gain combining case and

"
#
h
cos(

?

)
f
T
h
h
sin(

?

)
0
j
j
i
D
b
i
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
j
i
fij = q
? f T ?j?i+N ?1
D b
hi + hN ? ?i fD Tb + j ? i
#
"
h
cos(

?

)
f
T
H
h
sin(

?

)
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
j
N
?
?
i
D
b
N
?
?
i
j
j
N
?
?
i
+
+q
fD Tb ? j + i
hi + hN ? ?i fD Tb + j + i ? N + 1
1

for the maximal ratio combining case.

It is observed from the expression of fij0 that when there is no fading (AWGN only) the
elements of the matrix F0 reduces to

8
>
< 1; j = j
(
f
0
D Tb )
fij =
=>
(fD Tb) ? (j ? i) :  0; i =
6 j; fD Tb  1.
2

(27)

The matrix F0 then becomes an identity matrix and all interference due to a frequency
oset is cancelled except for the amplitude attenuation. This shows that the arrangement
of the spreading codes proposed in this paper can also help reduce the eect of frequency
errors. However, its performance will still depend on the multipath fading channel. Under
multipath fading conditions there will be phase variations between subcarriers. As a result,
some of the interference will remain.
V. Numerical Results

In this section, we consider a MC-CDMA system with a total of Nu = N = 64 (assumed

equal to the total number of the OFDM subcarriers) users. The spreading codes for
the dierent users are arranged as described in the previous sections. We will present
simulation results for the system performance in a frequency selective fading channel. The
channel is modeled as at fading on each subcarrier. We also assume perfect frequency
interleaving. The performance is evaluated for a full system and is compared to that of a
regular OFDM and also to a MC-CDMA system with single spreading codes.
Figure 4 gives simulation results for the bit error probability of user n as a function of
Eb =N when a zero forcing equalizer is used after combining. It is observed that with maximal ratio combining the system performance is about 0.5 dB better than that with equal
gain combining. Compared to regular OFDM, considerable performance improvement is
obtained with any of the two combining techniques. These results are conrmed using the
0

12

lower bound of (18), which gives a good indication about the asymptotic behavior of the
system performance at high SNR.
When only phase equalization is used, code orthogonality is partially restored and half
of the interference from other users is canceled. The bit error probability experiences an
error oor which is in this case about 3:5 10? as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 5 illustrates the performance of the MC-CDMA system for the two spreading
codes. It is clearly observed that the use of quadrature spreading codes outperforms the
single spreading codes. This low bit error probability is obtained without increasing the
complexity of the system and gives the possibility to use higher level modulation schemes
(M -level PAM) compensating for any reduction in eciency.
We notice from Figure 5 that with single spreading codes the system performance is
always worse than that of a regular OFDM scheme. This is due to the noise enhancement
caused by the channel coecients. This statement can be easily veried by computing a
lower bound using (18). That is,
3

Pb  PL =

11

2 erfc

!
E
b
Nx N fhmin (x)dx;
2

(28)

where

fhmin (x) = N [1 ? Fh(x)]N ? fh(x)

= 2Nxe?Nx2 ; x  0;
1

(29)

with fh(x) as given in (7). Carrying out the integration in (28), the lower bound reduces
to

u
u
1
4
PL = 2 1 ? t 1 +EbE=N=N 5 ;
b
0

(30)

which is the bit error rate of the regular OFDM scheme.

Figure 6 shows the bit error probability of the MC-CDMA system for two equalization
techniques. It can be seen that for most SNRs, the performance of the ZFE is about
1 dB away from that of the optimum MMSE equalizer. Therefore, by using quadrature
spreading codes one can safely use a ZFE at the receiver and avoids all the additional
complexity of the MMSE equalizer.

13

A. Eects of Frequency Errors

We start this investigation by considering an additive white Gaussian noise channel.

The bit error probability of the MC-CDMA system is shown in Figure 7 as function of
the product fD Tb and for a SNR of 7 dB. It is observed that over such channel quadrature
spreading codes outperform single spreading codes. This shows (see also (27)) that the
chosen arrangement of the spreading codes can also reduce the sensitivity of the system
to frequency errors.
For a multipath fading channel, the system performance depends on the phase distribution of the fading coecient at dierent subcarriers. The bit error probability is shown
in Figure 8 for the two combining techniques. A worst case situation has been assumed
where the phases of the subcarriers are identically independent and uniformly distributed.
A similar tendency in performance is observed for the two combining techniques.
VI. Conclusions

A Multi-Carrier CDMA system that uses quadrature spreading codes has been considered in this paper. The in-phase and quadrature components of the spreading code for each
user were arranged in a way that helped restore some of the orthogonality losses between
codes caused by the multipath fading channel. This consisted of using one Hadamard code
on the in-phase side and the reverse of the same code on the quadrature side.
The system performance in frequency selective fading channels has been examined analytically and by computer simulations. The obtained results showed that a MC-CDMA
system with quadrature spreading codes performs considerably better than a MC-CDMA
system with single spreading codes. This performance improvement is obtained without
the need for complicated receiver structures. With a zero forcing equalizer the obtained
performance is only 1 dB away from that obtained with the optimum MMSE equalizer.
The eects of frequency errors on the system performance have also been addressed in this
paper and investigated. For an additive white Gaussian noise channel, the use of quadrature spreading codes reduces the sensitivity of the system to frequency errors. For a more
severe channel, the system performance is dependent on the phase variations between
subcarrier signals.

14

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[8] D. N. Kalofonos, J. G. Proakis: Performance of the multi-stage detector for a MCCDMA system in a Rayleigh fading channel. Proc. Globecom '96, London, UK, November 1996, p. 1784-88.
[9] S. Kaiser: OFDM-CDMA versus DS-CDMA: Performance evaluation for fading channels. Proc. ICC '95, Dallas, USA, Juner 1995, p. 1722-26.
[10] R. L. Peterson, R. E. Ziemer, D. E. Borth: Introduction to Spread Spectrum Communications. Printice Hall, NJ, 1995.
[11] J. G. Proakis: Digital Communications. Third Edition, McGraw Hill, New York, 1995.
[12] A. Papoulis: Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1984.

15

List of Figure Captions

Fig. 1 - Transmitter block diagram of the MC-CDMA system that uses quadrature

spreading codes.
Fig. 2 - Simplied receiver block diagram for user n.
Fig. 3 - Cumulative distribution density function of the fading amplitude aecting the
MC-CDMA signal for the two cases of spreading codes.
Fig. 4 - Performance of MC-CDMA with quadrature spreading over frequency-selective,
slowly fading channels. Full interleaving, perfect CSI, and Nu = N = 64.
Fig. 5 - Performance comparison between MC-CDMA with quadrature spreading codes
and MC-CDMA with single spreading codes. Full interleaving, perfect CSI, and Nu =
N = 64.
Fig. 6 - Performance comparison between MC-CDMA detection with zero forcing equalizer and MC-CDMA detection with MMSE equalizer over a frequency-selective, slowly
fading channel.
Fig. 7 - Eects of frequency errors on the performance of MC-CDMA over an additive
white Gaussian noise channel for the two spreading codes and a SNR=7 dB.
Fig. 8 - Eects of frequency errors on the performance of MC-CDMA detection with
ZFE over a frequency selective, slowly fading channel for a SNR=11 dB.

16

user 0

input data

BPSK

a0

c0,0+jcN-1,0

jw 0 t

c1,0+jcN-2,0

jw1 t

multiplex

cN-2,0+jc1,0

jw N-2 t

cN-1,0+jc0,0

jw N-1 t

input data

user 1

input data

user Nu-1

xl (t)

17

cos (wl t)
r(t)

local
oscillator

OFDM
demodulator
(FFT)

combining
&
equalization

sin (wl t)

channel
estimation

despreading
&
detection

a^n

18

Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the Fading Amplitude

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
CDF of h_m
CDF of h_m, EGC
CDF of h_m, MRC

CDF

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0

0.5

1.5
Threshold

2.5

3.5

19

Performance of MCCDMA, Nu=64

1

10

Bit Error Probability

10

lower bounds

10

10

regular OFDM
phase equalization
EGC & ZFE
MRC & ZFE

10

10
12
Eb/No, dB

14

16

18

20

20

Performance of MCCDMA, Nu=64

10

Bit Error Probability

10

10

10

regular OFDM
single spreading
quadrature spreading

10

phase equalization
zero forcing equalizer

10

10
12
Eb/No, dB

14

16

18

20

21

Performance of MCCDMA, Nu=64

1

10

Bit Error Probability

10

10

10

EGC & ZFE

MRC & ZFE
EGC & MMSE
MRC & MMSE

10

10
Eb/No, dB

12

14

16

18

22

Additive White Gaussian Noise Channel

10

10
Bit Error Probability

single spreading
quadrature spreading
2

10

10

10

10

10
F_DT

10

23

Effect of Frequency Errors, SNR = 11.0 dB

10

EGC
MRC

Bit Error Probability

10

10

10

10

10

10
F_DT

10

24

Slimane Ben Slimane received the B. Eng. degree from l'Universite du Quebec a trois-

Rivieres, Quebec, Canada in 1985, the M. Eng. and the Ph.D. degrees from Concordia
University, Montreal, Canada, in 1988 and 1993, respectively. From 1993-1995, he worked
as a research associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of
Concordia University.
In 1995, he joined the Radio Communication Systems group, Department of Signals, Sensors, and Systems, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Swedem, where he is
currently an assistant professor. His research interest is in the area of mobile and personal
communications with special emphasis on digital modulation, error control coding, and
multiple access.