ASYNCHRONOUS DS-CDMA SYSTEM FOR VSAT
S A T E L L I T E COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
Young K . K i m , S r . Member o f I E E E
GTE S p a c e n e t C o r p o r a t i o n
1700 O l d Meadow Road
M c L e a n , V i r g i n i a 22102
ABSTRACT
Recently spread spectrum has found Its way into
commercial satellite communications mainly in
low data rate applications. In the paper. for
standard 56 Kbps point-to-point communications.
DS-CDMA system was assessed from the technical
feasibility standpoint for cse with Wide C-band
transponders.
The basic concept of the DS-CDMA was
discussed and the performances of DS-CDMA system
(asynchronus and synchronus) were explored.
Extensive link analysis and system tradeoffs
revealed that DS-CDMA could produce a good
throughput result. A recomendation for optimum
system was provided, and briefly the tradeoff
between standard SCPC and DS-CDMA was addressed.
Because of a vast market in interactive data
communications, DS-CDMA system could be a
promising alternative to TDMA or FDMA
incorporating with small economic earth stations.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been considerable
interest in satellite comunications with spread
spectrum and multiple access capabilities. The
spread spectrum effect is clearly of use for
secure conmunication pruposes. For satellite
applications, spread spectrum modulation yields
a conceptually simple solution to the
requirement of lowering radio frequency
interferences of one user by another. On the
other hand, multiple access capability is of use
for many users to share the bandwidth and
transmission capability of a satellite
comnunication system with a single repeater.
In code division multiple access, the channel
separation is primarily due to coding embedded
within the carrier waveform. Each uplink
station uses the entire satellite bandwidth and
transmit through the satellite whenever desired,
with all active stations superimposing their
waveforms on the downlink. Thus, unlike time
division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency
division multiple access (FDMA). there is no
requirement for precise timing and frequency
coordination between the various transmitting
stations. However. system performance depends
quite heavily on the ability to recognize
address codes [l].
Spread spectrum techniques use a much
larger-than-required bandwidth to transmit
information. Because of this, FDMA and TDMA
have been used as the predominant multiple
access techniques in satellite communications.
I40
0896-582X/87/0000/0140$01 .OO 0 1988 IEEE
However, both techniques employ expensive earth
stations with large antenna diameters.
Interference coordination is also the main
problem with the orbital spacing of 2 " . In
satellite communication networks, the recurring
cost per node becomes a significant factor. An
obvious cost reduction tradeoff is to reduce
remote terminal cost, which always implies using
a small antenna. Spread spectrum multiple
access appears to be the right candidate to
offer this inexpensive alternative for low data
rate application [ 2 1.
The two most connon forms of spread spectrum
techniques employed in CDMA are
frequency-hopping and direct sequence
modulation. The direct sequence (phase-coded)
CDMA method is very attractive for comunication
systems which also require protection against
malicious interferences and unauthorized
listening.
11. DIRECT SEQUENCE (DS) CDMA SYSTEM
To study DS-CDMA, the concept of DS spread
spectrum system using coherent PSK as carrier
modulation is discussed. Unlike the standard
unspread modem, here the resulting PSK carrier
at the modulator output is spread by multiplying
it by another carrier that has been modulated by
a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence represented by the
bipolar waveform with a chip rate much larger
than the information rate. At the receiver, the
information is removed by multiplying the
channel wave form by a synchronized replica of
th PN sequence. This operation therefore
spreads the interference signal over the spread
bandwidth determined by the PN sequence, and
hence the interference is reduced.
BY far the most widely studied binary PN
sequence is the maximal length linear feedback
shift register Sequence (m-sequence) that can be
generated with m-stage shift registers [ 3 ] .
This binary m-sequence has been successfully
employed in communication, navigation, and
related systems over the past several years.
For the early applications, m-sequences were
used primarily because of their excellent
periodic autocorrelation properties. For many
of the recent applications, however, the
cross-correlation properties of such sequences
are at least a s important as the autocorrelation
properties [ 5 ] . One application is our DS-CDMA
in which the utilization of sequences with low
cross-correlation is important in maximizing t k
total number of simultaneous users.
 Non-maximal length sequences which are
basically sums of pair of m-sequences (i.e..
Gold sequences and large and small sets of
Kasami sequences). all with period 2”-1,
exhibit much smaller peak cross-
correlation values that are appropriate for
DS-CDMA. Table 1 lists the peak values of the
cross-correlation for these deterministic
sequences [ 2 1.
In DS-CDMA, each carrier in the group
represents a low interference signal to the
others. The level of interference is directly
determined by the ratio of peak
cross-correlation to peak autocorrelation of the
PN-related sequence. The
carrier-to-interference ratio is largely
determined by the number of simultaneous active
users and the peak cross-correlation values.
The DS-CDMA system model that we consider is
shown in Figure 1 for K users. The k’-th user’s
data signal bk(t) is a sequence of unit ampli-
tude, positive and negative, rectangular pulses
of duration T. This Signal represents the k-th
user‘s binary information sequence. The k-th
user is assigned a code waveform ak(t) which
consists of a periodic sequence of unit
amplitude, positive and negative, rectangular
pulses of duration Tc. If (aik’) is a
sequence of elements of (, t1, -1) then we can
represent ak(t) as
a,(t)= ;-ay’ p,.c (t-jTc)
where PTC(t) is the rectangular pulse of
chtf:,duration Tc. We assme that each sequence
(a1 ) has period N=T/Tc so that there is
one code period a:k’, aik),---,
ai!; per data symbol. The data signal
bk(t) is modulated into the phase-coded
carrier Ck(t), which is given by
c,, c t ) = G a, c t ) c o r (w,t + e,)
Thus, the transmitted signal for the k-th users
is
Since we are concerned with relative phase
shifts modulo 2 and relative time delays
modulo T. there is no loss of generality in
assuming &=O and 7 I = 0 and considering
only 0 5 7 < T L:.: 3 .c_& L m o r kfi.
If the received signal r(t) is the input to
correlation receiver matched to Si(t). the
output is
Z, = i ’ r ( t ) ai ( t ) COS act I t
The data signal br(t) can be expressed as
bm ( t ) -k- hap, (t-ir)
where (bk,l ) S { + 1, -11,
The Output Of the
correlation receiver at t=T is given by
where Rki and 6 k l are the continuous-time
partial cross-correlation functions defined by
111. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF DS-CDMA SYSTEM
Up to this point we have not explicitly
indicated which parameters of the
cross-correlation functions should be
optimized. The ideal situation would be to find
a code for which the error probabilities Pr (2;
> Ol bi,o=-1) and Pr (Zi < 04 bi,o=+l) and smll
for all the values of the parameters 7 k ,
8 k . bk,-l. and bk.0.
The bit error probability of the carrier Sk(t)
U
is
pb ( s M ) = P, i - 1 t,C- 1 C ( f l ) ~ , i (r,,)+(*l)T;c;

In the above expressions 8 k represents the

phase of the k-th carrier, wo represents the
common center frequency, and P represents the
common signal power.
If the CDMA system is completely
1
C O S ( $ , , ~ ~ L O ~ I
Now assume that the random variables ? k ,
synchronized, then the time delay ? k shown in k=1.2,---, K are uniformly distributed over
the model of Figure 1 can be ignored (i.e., ( O P T ) *

rk= 0 for k = 1,2,---,K). This would require

For the asynchronous DS-CDMA systems, the exact
a common timing reference for the K transmitters
and it would necessitate compensation for delays calculation of error probability seems a
in the various transmission paths. For the formidable task. In this work, we present one
majority of DS-CDMA systems such compensation is approach based on the Chemoff bound to obtain
not feasible and hence the transmitters are not upper bound on the error probability expression
time-synchronous. in eq ( 3 ) [21.
For asynchronous systems the received signal
r(t) in Figure 1 is given by For a real number 0 , the Chernoff bound
states that
r (t) =f f i
.
.I
a,(t-rn)b,rt-T,,)Col(~gt’Or)+n(tJ

Where #k - 6 k - wc 7 k and n(t) is

the ChaMel noise process which we assme to be
a white Gaussian with two-sided spectral density
N0/2.

141
By using the Chernoff bound on the varjable
zI -1.8
~ ( 1 1R) , ~ c ~ , ) + ( ~ L ) R ~ ; c ~ , ) I
U. 1..
K I L
cos #&t ?L
The bit error probability in ( 3 ) is bounded by
Then the bit error probability of the entire
population of users is bounded by
pb 5 pc =Fro
&)K exp ( - X ) C P p (No_
4Eb
ax
[exp(x\pmo, ~ o ~ + e * p ( - ~ l
emoxI c o s 0 )
(7)
A
+ exP (-1 emo* I cos e)+c x p < - x
I 1 e)J d e l K
COP
The evaluation of the gdd cross-correlation
can be found in [ 7 ] , but -f' is not available
for deterministic sequences (Gold or Kasami)
as I fwbJ( I was. Therefore, the performance
bound in eq ( 7 ) for asynchronous DS-CDMA system
is not that easy to be calculated.
Recently E.A. Geraniotis [ 8 1 compared the
performances of DS-CDMA systems for both
asynchronous and synchronous cases, and his
result showed that for all modulation types
(PSK, DPSK, and,FSK),asynchronous result
generally performed better than synchronous
(which means, less requred Eb/No to guarantee an
error probability objectivek. He also pointed
out that these results could be applied to both
deterministic PN sequences and random
sequences. From thi,s result the synchronous
DS-CDMA can be viewed as an upper bound for the
asynchronous DS-CDMA.
From eq ( 7 ) . the bit error probability ?f
synchronous DS-CDMA system can be bounded
using 7 k = O , k=1,2.---,K, by
pb 5 pc = FT~ cxp ( - >) exp
4Eb
x2)
enp(-xlf",, I =os e11d
where now the cross-correlation of a selected PN
related sequence 1 s bounded by I Wax I, -3ich
can be available from Table 1.
If the Gaussian assumption is invoked for
inter-user interference, then Pb is Chernoff
bounded by
(5)
G l-
(9)
' - X2/ldx
-. . =
where O(xl is the
standard Gaussian integral.
In the following, considering the
computational difficulties in error probability
for asynchronous DS-CDMA systems, we Will use
the bit error probability bound for synchronous
DS-CDMA system to assess the feasibility Of
DS-CDMA system for use with Wide C-band SPACENET
transponders.
IV. DS-CDMA SYSTEM DESIGN AND LINK ANALYSIS
The DS-CDMA spread spectrum system design
tradeoffs to optimally utilize the satellite
channel include the following:
Information data rate
Forward error correction (FEC) coding
rate and gain
Spreading rate
Access capacity (CDMA)
Earth station antenna size
Satellite channel power and bandwidth
-
Interference with Small Antenna
The low gain associated with small antennas can
be overcome by increased transponder power.
This increase is bounded however, by a FCC
specification on the maximum permissible carrier
power density. This restriction protects
co-frequency users from interfering with each
other. The increased beamwidth caused by
smaller aperture size has perhaps the most
significant impact on system design. Antenna
with 4 foot (1.2m) diameters have a half-power
(3dB) beamwidth of 5." at 4 GHz. This implies
that when satellites are spaced 2" apart, the
antenna will receive mainbeam signals from three
different satellites (one desired and two
undesired). The magnitude of this interference
is a function of the traffic in co-frequency
transponders on the adjacent satellites. For 6
foot (1.8m) and 8 foot (2.4m) aperture antennas
half-power beamwidth can be 3.5" and 2.4O,
respectively. And in these cases, the
interferences from the adjacent 2" spaced
satellites could be much reduced.
Many engineers believe that spread spectrum
alleviates the interference problems which are
driven by the use of small aperture antennas.
But this satellite interference issue in
conjunction with spread spectrum appears to be a
complicated matter to handle. Generally
agreeable statement can be made as follows:
against narrowband interference. by spreading
the interfering carrier, the spread spectrum can
reduce this interference significantly. But
against widebiand interference (typical TDMA or
E'M/TV carrier). it is difficult to expect
interference reduction since the interfering
142

carrier will not be spread as it is already
wideband.
The DS-CDMA system is capable of rejecting
narrowband interference from terrestrial radio
system. But against wideband terrestrial
interference, the use of spread spectrum doesn't
lo& praising in reducing the interference-
Intennodulation
The intermodulation in CDMA is due to the
nonlinear amplification of overlapping carrier
spectra. ,This is in contrast to the case in
F'DMA where the carrier spectra are contiguous.
Nevertheless, intermodulation spectra for the
two cases have been observed to be quite
similar, and intermodulation effects for the
FDMA case are often used in CDMA analysis as
well [I]. FOC CDMA the power backoff for linear
performance of nonlinear amplifiers is required.
It was reported [9] that in the QpsK DS-CDMA
system the interference of the intermodulation
products (IMPS) caused by the interaction
between a desired biphase spread spectrum Signal
and each of the undesired biphase spread
spectrum signal in a nonlinear transponder can
be much reduced, though these intermodulation
interferences cannot be reduced by the
inteference rejection capability of a BPSK
DS-CDMA system.
Error-Correction Coding
The use of error-correction coding in DS-CDMA
can greatly improve the number of simultaneous
users because coding in effect reduces the noise
floor of the satellite channel as far as signal
detection is concerned. Table 2 shows several
code rates and values of specified for
achieving acceptable performance (BER
with a Practical convolutional code and a soft
decision decoder [4].
Link Analysis Cases
In the following, the link analysis cases and
assumptions are summarized.
SPACENET 1 (12OOW)
56 W p s information rate
Wide C-band transponder (72 MHz)
1.8m and 2.4m VSATs
FM: rate of 718 or 1/2
Modulation: BPSK or QPSK
Low noise amplifier temperature: 90°K
Filtering: Square root 60% cosine
COllQf f
Guaranteed BEI? of 10"
The spread spectrum channel capacities (max.
no. of 56 Kbps channel permissible) per SPACENET
Wide C-band transponder for different PN related
codes, FM: rates and modulation types are
sunmnarized in Table 3.
For both BPSK and QPSK modulations, code
period 63(2'-1) Kasami sequence (small set)
turned out to be the best selection in terms of
the bandwidth throughput (bit/Hz). Gold code
has larger set si=, but it has bigger peak
cross-correlation value than Kasami small set,
which limits the no. of simultaneous users
significantly under a given BER objective. In
the calculation. the Gaussian assumption was
invoked for DS-CDMA user interference and the
energy-per-bitluser-interference-density ratio
was determined from the no. of simultaneous
users and the normalized maximum
143
cross-correlations. With the guaranteed BER of
io-', system performance was calculated using
eq (9). With Kasami sequence (small set) of
code period 63, we have maximum eight
simultaneous users per a spread spectrum
channel.
In the follow-on coded DS-CDMA link
performance analysis, it was generally conceivec
that the spread spectrum channel capacity was
limited mostly by satellite bandwidth than
satellite power. The link budget result
(available Eb/No) and the calculated
energy-per-bit/ user-interference-density were
incorporated with eq (9) to meet with quaranteed
BER of lo-' (see Table 2).
Tradeoffs between satllite bandwidth and
satellite power provide the summary Table 4 for
channel capacity (max. no. of 56 kbps channels)
and VSAT HPA sizes. Here we considered two
point-to-point services (1.8 m-to-1.8 m and 2.4
m-to-2.4m).
For your more information, the comparison
result between synchronous and asynchronous
DSICDMA system [ a ] showed that for a case with
PSK modulation, code length 63 and ten
simultaneous users which was almost identical to
our case, there was about 2.4dB Eb/No difference
(with guaranteed BER of Also it was
observed that for higher BER objective (lo-'
or lo-' BER) the F M N o difference gap became
wider, which means we may expect at least this
Eb/No improvement with asynchronous DS-CDMA
system over synchronous system. But to be more
realistic, this Eb/No improvement was allocated
as the overall implementation margin of
asynchronous DS-CDMA system.
Through the study, we found that QPSK with
7/8 rate ??EC and 2.4 m VSAT could be the best
selection in balancing the satellite bandwidth
and power tradeoffs (providing 130 channel
capacity) with 3.0 dB nominal transponder output
backoff and in meeting small HPA size
Standard SCPC Services
A non-spread spectrum, standard 56Kbps SCPC
link was considered to study the tradeoffs
between DS-CDMA and SCPC. With larger C-band
antennas (4.5m-to-4.5m), the SCPC link showed
better channel capacity (180 Channels per Wide C
transponder) than spread spectrum link, but it
requires expensive large antenna ground systems
and bigger HPA size (75 Watts). Interference
coordination in this regular C-band SCPC link is
also the major problem with the orbital spacing
of 2O.
V. CONCLUSION
For standard 56 kbps point-to-point
communications service, DS-CDMA system was
considered from the feasibility standpoint for
the use of SPACENTCT Wide C-band transponders.
Through the link designs and performance
tradeoff study, the optimum CDMA system
throughput result (bit/Hz) appeared to be
promising in utilizing the Wide C rich bandwjdth
(72 MHz) transponder. A recommendation was made
for the optimum asynchronous DS-CDMA system and
the tradeoff between standard SCPC and DS-CDMA
was addressed.
 Despreading process in DS-CDMA can reduce the
interferences (especially narrowband
interfernce) from the adjacent satellites and
terrestrial radios considerably. DS-CDMA system Table 2
link analysis results concince us to use small
aperture C-band antennas ( 2 . h ) and small Required E b I N o for IO-' E R
solid-state power amplifiers which can gear to
very low cost network design. C o d e Rate (Ei tslCode Symbol) Eb/No(dB)
In a CDMA approach, a low carrier power I (uncoded) 10.5
density which leads to a low probability of ita 7.1
detection (provision of message privacy), could 314 6.2
I /2 5 3
be a merit feature.
Also, the very high availability which is an
Table 3
inherent advantage in C-band satellite operation
cannot be deemphasized. (I) BPSK wlth 718 Rate FEC
No. o f No. of CKRS
REFERENCES PN Code Simul. per Wide C Channel
Period Code Famllv Users Transponders CaDaCI t Y

63 Kasaml (small) 8 11 88
1. M. Gagliardi, Satellite Communications. Gold & Kasaml (large) 3 11 33
127 Gold (odd) IO 5 50
Chapter 1984 Wadsworth Inc. 255 Kasaml (small) 15 2 30
2. T. T. Ha, "Spread Spectrum for Low Cost Cold & Kasaml (large) 15 2 20
Satellite Services", International Journal 511 Cold (odd) 38 1 38
of Satellite Communications, Vol 3 , June 1985. (11) BPSK r l t h 112 Rate FEC
NO. of NO. o f Carrlerr
3 . R. Dixon, Spread Spectrum Systems, Chapter 3. simultaneous per nlde C Channel
4 . A. J. Viterbi, "When Not to Spread Spectrum - PN Code
Pertod Coda F a n l l v users rranrponderr Capacity
A Sequel". IEEE Communication Magazine, 63 Kasanl ( s m a l l ) 8 6 48
April 1985. cold h Kasanl ( l a r g e ) 4 6 24
127 Gold ( O d d ) 14 3 42
5. D. V. Sarwate and M. B. Pursley, 255 Kasani ( S M l l ) 16 II 1166
"Cross-correlation Properties of Pseudorandom G O I ~6 Kasaml ( I t r a t ) 15
and Related Sequences", Proceedings of the (111) QPSK r l t h 718 Rate FEC
IEEE, Vol 68, No. 5, May 1980. no. o no. o Cdrrlers
siwitankus pe: niae c Channel
6. J. Campanella. Private Communication. PM code
Period Code F d 1 Y users Transwnderr Capacity
7. M. B. Pursley. "Performance Evaluation for 8 21 I68
63 K u m l (SM11)
Phase-Coded Spread-Spectrum Multiple-Access t o l d h Karaml ( l a r g e ) 3 21 63
127 mid (odd) 9 I1 99
Communication - Part I: System Analysis", 255 Kasaml (SMll) I6 5 80
IEEE Trans. on Comm.. Vol COM-25, No. 8, Gold h KaramI ( l a r g e ) 10 5 so
511 G O I ~(odd) 38 2 76
August 1977. (1'4) QPSK r l t h I i 2 Rate FEC
8 E. A. Geraniotis, "Performance of Noncoherent no. of no. of C a r r l e r s
Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum PU code SImuitanMus Per nide c Channel
Period Code F a d I Y users TransWnders CaPaCltY
Multiple-Access Communications", IEEE Jour.
on Selectd Areas in Comm., Vol SAC-3, No. 5, 63 KaSaml ( S M l l ) 8 12 96
Gold 6 K 1 s U I ( l a r g e ) 4 12 48
September 1985. I27 Gold (odd) 14 6 84
255 K a s u I (small) 16 3 b8
Delov Gold b K a r u l (large) 10 3 45

Table 4
Channel C a p a c i t y (No. o f 56 k b p s C h a n n e l )
a n d VSAT HPA S i z e
(I.am-tol.am12.4m-to-2.4m)
F EC
W 1 ) T Modulation 718 R a t e 112 R a t e
S~O,JI)COS~I
+&I Channel BPSK aa I aa 4a I 6a
FIGURE I . ASYHCHROXO'U'S DIInECT SEQIJLNCE Capacity
CDMA SYSTEM HODEL P e r SPACENET
Wide C-band
Table I . P r o p e r t i e s o f Sequence Sets Transponder QpSK 114 I 130 96 / 96
Famlly m Set Peak VSAT BPSK 50 I 30 25 I 10
S i ze Cross-correl ati on
Go1 d odd 2" + 1 1 + 2 (mr"12 HPA
Size
Gold Z(mod 4 ) 2" + 1 1 + 2 ("+2>/2 (Watts) QPSK 50 I 30 25 1 10

Kasaml even 2"" 1 + 2 Z'm

(small)
Kasami even 2"'2(2"+1) 1 + 2 (mr2'/2
(large)

144