2094expt 9 - PN Code - New
2094expt 9 - PN Code - New
2094expt 9 - PN Code - New
Experiment No: 09
Theory- Spread spectrum communication systems are widely used today in a variety of applications for
different purposes such as access of same radio spectrum by multiple users (multiple access), anti-
jamming capability (so that signal transmission cannot be interrupted or blocked by spurious transmission
from enemy), interference rejection, secure communications, multi-path protection, etc. However,
irrespective of the application, all spread spectrum communication systems satisfy the following criteria-
(i) As the name suggests, bandwidth of the transmitted signal is much greater than that of the
message that modulates a carrier.
(ii) The transmission bandwidth is determined by a factor independent of the message
bandwidth.
The power spectral density of the modulated signal is very low and usually comparable to background
noise and interference at the receiver.
As an illustration, let us consider the DS-SS system shown in Fig 1 (a) and (b). A random spreading code
sequence c(t) of chosen length is used to ‘spread’(multiply) the modulating signal m(t). Sometimes a high
rate pseudo-noise code is used for the purpose of spreading. Each bit of the spreading code is called a
‘chip’. Duration of a chip ( Tc) is much smaller compared to the duration of an information bit ( T). Let
us consider binary phase shift keying (BPSK) for modulating a carrier by this spread signal. If m(t)
represents a binary information bit sequence and c(t) represents a binary spreading sequence, the
‘spreading’ or multiplication operation reduces to modulo-2 or ex-or addition. For example, if the
modulating signal m(t) is available at the rate of 10 Kbits per second and the spreading code c(t) is
generated at the rate of 1 Mbits per second, the spread signal d(t) is generated at the rate of 1 Mega Chips
per second. So, the null-to-null main lobe bandwidth of the spread signal is now 2 MHz. We say that
bandwidth has been ‘spread’ by this operation by a factor of hundred. This factor is known as the
spreading gain or process gain (PG). The process gain in a practical system is chosen based on the
application.
On BPSK modulation, the spread signal becomes, s(t) = d(t).coswt. Fig.1 (b) shows the baseband
processing operations necessary after carrier demodulation. Note that, at the receiver, the operation of
despreading requires the generation of the same spreading code incorrect phase with the incoming code.
The pseudo noise (PN) code synchronizing module detects the phase of the incoming code sequence,
mixed with the information sequence and aligns the locally generated code sequence appropriately. After
this important operation of code alignment (i.e. synchronization) the received signal is ‘despread’ with the
locally constructed spreading code sequence. The dispreading operation results in a narrowband signal,
modulated by the information bits only. So, a conventional demodulator may be used to obtain the
message signal estimate.
Types of SS
Based on the kind of spreading modulation, spread spectrum systems are broadly classified as-
Several spreading codes are popular for use in practical spread spectrum systems. Some of these are
Maximal Sequence (m-sequence) length codes, Gold codes, Kasami codes and Barker codes. In this
section will be briefly discussed about the m-sequences.
These are longest codes that can be generated by a shift register of a specific length, say, L. An L-stage
shift register and a few EX-OR gates can be used to generate an msequence of length 2L -1. Fig 2(a)
shows an m-sequence generator using n memory elements, such as flip-flops. If we keep on clocking such
a sequence generator, the sequence will repeat, but after 2L -1 bits. The number of 1-s in the complete
sequence and the number of 0-s will differ by one. That is, if L = 8, there will be 128 one-s and 127 zero-s
in one complete cycle of the sequence. Further, the auto-correlation of an msequence is -1 except for
relative shifts of (0 ± 1) chips (Fig.2(b)). This behavior of the auto correlation function is somewhat
similar to that of thermal noise as the auto correlation shows the degree of correspondence between the
code and its phase-shifted version. Hence, the m-sequences are also known as, pseudo-noise or PN
sequences.
Conclusion: