IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 11, NO.

6, JUNE 2007 465

A Novel ZCZ Code Based on m-Sequences and its

Applications in CDMA Systems
Ganlin Ye, Jing Li, Student Member, IEEE, Aiping Huang, Member, IEEE,
and Hsiao-Hwa Chen, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract— In this paper, we propose a novel zero-correlation II. m-ZCZ C ODE

zone (ZCZ) code, called m-ZCZ code. Both auto-correlation
function (ACF) side lobes and cross-correlation function (CCF)
A. Generation and Properties
of the code are zero within ZCZ, whose length can be adjusted Denote a code set of interest as m-ZCZ (L, J, wmin ) =
in a very flexible manner. The m-ZCZ code can be generated {(ai1 , ai2 )}, where i = 0, · · · , J − 1, L, J and wmin stand
using a simple method. If compared with conventional binary for code length, set size of the code set and the minimum
ZCZ codes, the m-ZCZ code can support more users while still
retaining the same interference-resist capability. length of one-side ZCZ, respectively. The first sub-code of
the i-th code is ai1 = ci·wmin with the length of P , where c0
Index Terms— CDMA, m-sequence, ZCZ, system capacity. is an m-sequence with its period P , and ci·wmin stands for
the sequence generated by cyclically leftward shifted c0 with
i · wmin chips, i.e.,
I. I NTRODUCTION ci·w
n
min
= c0(n+i·wmin ) mod P
where n = 0, · · · , P − 1 and n is the chip index. The second
PREADING code plays an important role in the design
S of whole CDMA system. The correlation properties of the
spreading codes can directly affect system’s interference-resist
sub-code ai2 = {+1} contains only one ”+1” chip. The
congregated code length is L=P +1. The set size of the code is
J =
P/wmin , where
x is the maximum integer not larger
capability, especially under multipath channels. Moreover, the than x.
number of available spreading codes determines how many The periodic auto-correlation function (ACF) of an m-ZCZ
users can be supported simultaneously. Recently, many papers code and periodic cross-correlation function (CCF) of any two
have been focused on the design and application of codes m-ZCZ codes in the set can be defined as follows,
with zero-correlation zone (ZCZ) [1]- [5]. With the help of


P −1
min j·wmin
ci·w
these ZCZ codes, a CDMA system can be made interference- ∆
Ri,j (l) = n cn+l + ai2 aj2
free as long as the one-side ZCZ length is longer than the n=0
maximum signal delay spread, which is caused by multipath

P −1

propagation or/and asynchronous transmissions. The ZCZ = c0(n+i·wmin ) mod P c0(n+l+j·wmin ) mod P + ai2 aj2
length of conventional binary ZCZ codes is restricted to 2k n=0

P + 1, i = j, l = 0
(where k is an integer). Therefore, in practical applications =
−1 + 1, i = j, 0 < |l| < wmin or i
= j, |l| < wmin
the ZCZ length has to be chosen much larger than necessary. 
L, i = j, l = 0
As a result, the number of available codes is limited, which = (1)
0, i = j, 0 < |l| < wmin or i
= j, |l| < wmin
is inversely proportional to the ZCZ length.
In this letter we propose a novel binary ZCZ code based where integer l denotes the relative time shift.
on m-sequences, called m-ZCZ code. Its ZCZ length can be It can be seen from (1) that the ACF of any m-ZCZ code
flexibly selected to match the maximum time delay with a is zero when 0 < |l| <wmin , and the CCF between any
great degree-of-freedom, such that so constructed interference- two codes is zero when |l| <wmin . Thus, there exists a ZCZ
resistant CDMA system can support more users than that using with minimum one-side length being wmin . The wmin can
conventional binary ZCZ codes. be flexibly controlled by adjusting the number of the cyclic
shifted chips.

Manuscript received February 10, 2007. The associate editor coordinating

the review of this letter and approving it for publication was Dr. Xi Zhang.
This work was supported partly by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (60472080), the SRFDP project of Ministry of Education, China
(20060335063), Huawei Foundation (YJCB2006070WL), and National Sci-
ence Council, Taiwan (NSC 95-2221-E-110-062 and NSC 95-2221-E-110-
063).
G. Ye, J. Li (e-mail: jingli@ieee.org), and A. Huang (e-mail: aiping.
huang@zju.edu.cn) are with the Institute of Information and Communications
Engineering, Zhejiang University, China.
H.-H. Chen is with the Department of Engineering Science, National
Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (the corresponding author with e-mail:
hshwchen@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LCOMM.2007.070226.
1089-7798/07$25.00

B. An Example of m-ZCZ Code Set
Given L=16 and wmin =4, we can get a set of m-ZCZ codes
denoted by (16, 3, 4) containing J =
15/4 = 3 codes as
(a01 , a02 )
= (+1 +1 +1 -1 -1 -1 -1 +1 -1 +1 -1 -1 +1 +1 -1, +1)
(a11 , a12 )
= (-1 -1 -1 +1 -1 +1 -1 -1 +1 +1 -1 +1 +1 +1 -1, +1)
(a21 , a22 )
= (-1 +1 -1 -1 +1 +1 -1 +1 +1 +1 -1 -1 -1 -1 +1, +1),
where sub-codes are separated by commas. Figure 1 shows
c 2007 IEEE
466 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 11, NO. 6, JUNE 2007

16
magnitude

ACF R0,0
8
prefix sub-code 1 postfix 1 1 1 1 1
0
-10 -5 0 5 10 spreading code
relative shift (in chip)
16 0 0 sub-code 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
magnitude

wmin= 4 CCF R0,1

8
local dispreading code

Fig. 2. The formats of m-ZCZ code at both transmitter and receiver.

0
-10 -5 0 5 10
relative shift (in chip)
45
16
magnitude

CCF R2,1 40
8
wmin= 4
m-ZCZ code
35 =2
0 conventional ZCZ code max
-10 -5 0 5 10 30

Number of users
relative shift (in chip)
max
=3
25
Fig. 1. Correlation functions of some codes in m-ZCZ (16, 3, 4). max
=4
20

the correlation functions of the above codes. It is obvious that 15

there exists a ZCZ with minimum one-side length of four
10
chips.
5

III. D ISCUSSIONS
A. Parameters
Now let us take a look at some special values of the m-ZCZ
code parameters. Given the code length L, when wmin =1,
J =
P/wmin  = P , the m-ZCZ code set is equal to a Walsh-
Hadamard code set, excluding the all-one code [6]. When ZCZ
length reaches its maximum value, i.e., wmin =P , then there is
only one code in the set, whose ACF has a ZCZ with one-side
length P . While for 1 < wmin < P , the set size J satisfies
1 < J =
P/wmin  < P . Therefore, the increase in ZCZ
length is obtained at the price of set size reduction.
B. Application of m-ZCZ code in CDMA systems
At the transmitter side, spreading code is formed by the
two sub-codes of an m-ZCZ code as shown in Figure 2, with
a cyclic prefix and a cyclic postfix inserted at both sides of
each sub-code. The lengths of the cyclic prefixes and cyclic
postfixes should be at least equal to the maximum multipath
time delay, so that the two sub-codes will not overlap with
each other after being transmitted via multipath channels.
At the receiver side, the local dispreading code is formed
by the two sub-codes of the m-ZCZ code, with zeros inserted
in the guard intervals of identical length, which should be
equal to that of the cyclic prefixes and postfixes in the
spreading code. To make decisions, aperiodic correlation is
performed between the received signal and local dispreading
code. Due to the effects of cyclic prefix and postfix, the
aperiodic correlation actually becomes periodic correlation. It
can be inferred from Equation (1) that MAI-free operation is
guaranteed.
Though the use of prefixes and postfixes may decrease
the data rate, the cost can be ignored when multipath delay
is much smaller than the code length. This means that the
proposed m-ZCZ code could be more suitable for wireless
systems with a relatively short delay spread.
0
8 16 32 64 128
Code length L
Fig. 3. The number of users that interference-free CDMA systems can
support.
C. Number of supportable users in MAI-free CDMA Systems
Let us examine the maximum number of supportable users
of the m-ZCZ code, which governs the capacity of a CDMA
system.
To mitigate multipath interference, the one-side ZCZ length
wmin must be larger than the maximum delay spread τmax (in
chip) to achieve interference-free operation. For conventional
binary ZCZ codes, the ZCZ length must be 2k , thus the one-
side ZCZ length becomes wmin = 2
log2 (τmax +1) , where
x indicates the minimum integer not smaller than x. Thus
the set size of the conventional binary ZCZ codes is Jcon =
L/(2
log2 (τmax +1) ), where L is the code length. However,
for the proposed m-ZCZ code, wmin can be any positive
integer between 1 and L-1. Hence, we set wmin =
τmax  +
1 and the set size of m-ZCZ code becomes Jm−ZCZ =

(L−1)/(
τmax  + 1).
Figure 3 compares the supportable number of users between
CDMA systems using m-ZCZ codes and other conventional
binary ZCZ codes, respectively. For both systems, the number
of users is dependent of code length L as well as the maximum
delay spread τmax . More users can be supported when the code
length L increases; whereas less users will be supported when
τmax increases. Given an L, when
τmax +1 = 2k , the system
using m-ZCZ code can support much more users; while for

τmax +1 = 2k , both systems support nearly the same number
of users, since the parameters wmin are the same. In general,
the system using m-ZCZ code can provide an higher capacity
than that using conventional ZCZ codes under most channel
conditions, as the ZCZ length of m-ZCZ code can flexibly
adapt to τmax .
YE et al.: A NOVEL ZCZ CODE BASED ON M -SEQUENCES AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN CDMA SYSTEMS
IV. C ONCLUSION
The m-ZCZ code proposed in this letter consists of two sub-
codes. The first sub-code is an m-sequence or its cyclically
shifted version, while the second sub-code consists of ”+1”
chips only. The structure of the code set is simple and thus
it is easy to be generated. The ACF side lobes and CCF of
the m-ZCZ codes are zero within ZCZ, whose length can
be chosen flexibly according to maximal delay spread as well
as required interference-resistant capability. Therefore, CDMA
system using the m-ZCZ code can support more users for an
higher capacity than that using conventional binary ZCZ codes
with almost the same interference-resistant capability.
467
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