Spreading (Channelization)

Figure 9.5 shows the basic operations of spreading and despreading for a WCDMA system. User data bits
have a rateRassumingthevaluesof±1. The spreading operation,

in this example, is the multiplication of each user data bit with a sequence of four code

bits called chips. The resulting spread data is at a rate of 4×Rand has the same random

(pseudo noise-like) appearance as the spreading code. In this case, we would say that we

used a spreading factor (SF) of 4. This wideband signal would then be further processed

and transmitted across a wireless channel to the receiving end.

During dispreading, the spread user data/chip sequence is multiplied, symbol by symbol, with the very
same four coded chip sequence used in the spreading process of these

symbols. As shown, the original user symbol sequence is then recovered, provided there

is synchronization between the spread signal and the (de)spreading code.

The increase of the signaling rate by a factor of 4 corresponds to a widening (by a factor of 4) of the
occupied spectrum bandwidth of the spread user data signal. Due to this

virtue, CDMA systems are more generally called spread spectrum systems. Despreading

restores a bandwidth proportional to intended rate R for the signal. In addition to widening the signal
spectrum, spreading sequence is coded in specific way thus introducing

an orthogonality factor between different data streams (channels). Within the cell, the
Figure 9.5 Combining data and spreading sequences with SF=4.

different channels are separated by achannelization code, also called the Orthogonal

Variable Spreading Factor(OVSF) code. The OVSF handles the signal spreading, as

illustrated in Figure 9.5. The OVSF possesses two important features:

•an orthogonality of the codes with same length

•and the fact that orthogonality is conserved between OVSFs of variable lengths.

The OVSF orthogonality property ensures that different users of the same cell do not

interfere with each other. If a signal coded with a given OVSF is decoded with a different

OVSF, the resulting signal is an average null signal producing an equal number of 1s (−1)

and 0s (+1).

The length of the OVSF (also called the Spreading Factor, SF) refers to the number of

chips for a single input bit/symbol: a bit coded with OVSF length 256 would be represented by 256 chips,
while a bit coded with OVSF length of 4 would be represented by

four chips. Using a long OVSF has the advantage of adding redundancy to the transmitted information.
The impact of this redundancy is seen in the spreading gain; that is, the

ratio of user bits to transmitted chips.

The bit rate of the user signal represented in the chip sequence is related to the spreading factor. The
orthogonal code families containing code sequence of different lengths

are used to implement variable data rates. This is necessary even for a single UMTS user

since a multi bearer service could be available to a single user at the same time. Also, this

is necessary to distinguish between control and traffic channels on the uplink from the

same terminal.

The principle of implementation of different transmission rate is illustrated in

Figure 9.6. This involves the ‘multiplication’ of every bit of each data stream by a

spreading code with a respective number of chips equal to the SF.

The different bit streams that are to be transmitted simultaneously are multiplied by

different OVSF codes and then added together. The receiver that receives the sum of all

chip streams must be in position to reconstruct each of the transmitted bit streams.

This is only possible if the code sequences of different chip streams are orthogonal

to each other. The OVSF codes can be created through the use of code tree, as illustrated in Figure 9.7.
Each node of the tree has exactly two branches, each representing a

double-length code. The codes of the same level (of the same SF value) have same length.

Each code with a spreading factor N is created from a code with spreading factor N/2.

Consequently, a set of 2^k spreading codes with a length of 2^k chips are available at

the kth level. Availability of OVSFs of a specific length is determined by the number

of OVSFs of same length or shorter that are used, as well as by the number of longer

OVSFs used.

An OVSF code is basically created though multiplication of a code of the next lower
level of a code tree. The code being multiplied is called the mother code. Exactly two next

level double-length codes are created from a mother code by chaining the two copies

of the mother code or chaining the mother code with a copy multiplied by−1. Based on

the rules of creating the OVSF, the code of shorter length may be found in a longer one.

This means that two codes of different levels of the code tree are orthogonal to each

other as long as one of the two codes is not the mother code of other one. Because of

this limitation, the number of simultaneously usable codes depends on the bit rate and

spreading factor.

The definition for the same code tree means that for transmission from a single source,

from either a terminal or a base station, one code tree is used (with one scrambling

code on top of the tree). This means that different terminals and different base stations

may operate their code trees totally independently of each other; there is no need to

coordinate the code tree resource usage between different base stations or terminals.