Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K34-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-8113-8
Implementation of Spread Spectrum Modulation Schemes for Secure Communications
Anand Krisshna P
Department of Electronic and
Communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India
anandkrisshna.p@gmail.com
P A Gopika
Department of Electronic and
Communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India
gopi003.ajr@gmail.com
ABSTRACT- This paper presents a study of wideband
spread spectrum modulation schemes with application to
secure communications and presents its advantages over
narrow band communications. It mainly focuses on two
Spread Spectrum techniques - Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum and Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum.
These methods sufficiently reduce the power spectral
density of the transmitted signal making it a very secure
form of data transmission. Both the techniques were
simulated and analyzed using Matlab for the stated
application, where real time geographical locations was
considered and the obtained results are presented.
Keywords- AGWN; DSSS; FHSS; CDMA; Secure
Communication.
I.INTRODUCTION
With the tremendous advancements in the field of
communications, there is an increasing demand for
secure form of data transmission. One of the major
problems with narrow-band transmission is the
undesired signal interference from the channel and
also interference from users of adjacent frequencies
due to the availability of small bandwidths in and
around the assigned frequency. Spread spectrum is a
technology in which the data is sent using a much
higher bandwidth. Spread spectrum technology is less
prone to intentional and unintentional interference and
jamming that are encountered during the transmission
of the digital information. These techniques exhibit
desirable properties like reducing interference,
minimizing crosstalk etc[1]. In Spread spectrum
transmission, the transmitted signal assumes a
bandwidth that is much higher than the minimum
required bandwidth to send the original information.
By sending the signal with a much wider bandwidth, a
third party will not be able to tap the message or
interfere because the message is now “hidden” in noise
and only the noise spectrum remains superficially[1].
This type of spectrum spreading is obtained by means
of a spreading code, and a synchronized spreading
code at the receiver is used for data retrieval at
the receiver. These spreading codes are referred to
as
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978-1-5386-8113-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Aswini B Sreehari S Nair
Department of Electronic and Department of Electronic and
Communication Engineering Communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India Amritapuri, India
baswini16@gmail.com sreeharisnair26@gmail.com
Gayathri Narayanan
Deparment of Electronics and
Communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India
gayathrin@am.amrita.edu
“pseudo random” or “pseudo noise” (PN) codes.
These randomly produced PN codes by the PN
generator are uniformly distributed and are
independent of the input data. The spread signal will
exhibit flat spectral density across the bandwidth
rather than a single peak at the modulation frequency.
This results in the drowning of signal in noise and
therefore makes the system immune to any third party
attackers or interference. Commercially, spread
spectrum was used in military applications, due to its
resistance to jamming. Fig 1 is a pictorial depiction of
the power spectral density of normal modulation and
spread spectrum modulation, where the peak implies
the normal spectrum and the red curve indicates spread
spectrum.
Fig 1: Spread and Normal Signals power spectral density
Spread Spectrum communications is an area of
appreciable research significance. Several research
works can be seen in the literature [2][4]. Performance
analysis of the DSSS and FHSS scheme applicable to
AWGN channels is explored. [3] deals with the
implementation of the 2 schemes validating the aspect
of security but does not emphasize on any application
in particular. [6] builds on [2] to extend it to wireless
scenario considering fading and interference. [7],[8]
presents an overall literature review in this field. This
paper is organized as mentioned. Section I gives an
introduction to the motivation of using spread
spectrum techniques and also gives a brief outline of the
current state of the art. Section II describes the
theory pertaining to the problem. Section III gives the
detailed simulation results for the chosen application.
Section IV presents the conclusion of the work.
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K34-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-8113-8
II . SPREADING TECHNIQUES
A. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
Direct sequence spread spectrum or DSSS is one of the
two approaches of spread spectrum modulation
technique for digital signal transmission. It was
initially developed for military use, to resist jamming
attempts [1]. In DSSS modulation, initially the data
signal is multiplied by the pseudo random noise. This
random signal has more bit rate when compared to the
original signal. The input signal is mixed with the
spreading sequence. The resultant multiplied signal
will be the length of the pseudo random bit sequence.
Consider the frequency translation of a base-band
message to a higher part of the spectrum, using BPSK
modulation. The resulting signal occupies a bandwidth
which is double the frequency or more, and has a
power spectral density which is much less than the
noise occupying the same part of the spectrum.
The carriers chosen for digital modulation, for
instance, BPSK, are typically spread over large
bandwidth, and so the modulated signals will also
occupy the same bandwidth. Advantages of DSSS are
its difficultness to detect and simple implementation,
it also shows the best behavior in multipath rejection,
but there are few drawbacks too, like the near far
effect. DSSS spectrum is currently used in certain
application like CDMA cellphone technology,
convert communications and satellite based
navigation systems. DSSS has best discrimination
against multiple path signals and reduces third party
interference or jamming effectively. However it has
certain disadvantages such as it requires large
acquisition time and wideband channel with small
phase distortion. Also the pseudo noise generator
should generate sequence at high rates. FHSS have
larger bandwidth and needs shorter acquisition time.
FHSS technology applies to the endpoints requiring
fast mobility. The following sub-section explains the
concept of FHSS.
B. Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum
Near far effect is one of the primary problems
encountered in Direct Sequence spreading, which is
overcome in the Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum
or FHSS. In the Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum,
the carrier is made to hop in a random fashion from one
frequency to other with respect to time [1]. The
baseband signal is modulated on a carrier signal and the
frequency of this carrier, i.e. the sequence of
channels is fully dependent on the spreading code,
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which is generated by a Pseudo Noise (PN) source. For
every T seconds, the PN source produces a new k-bit
value. The frequency of the carrier in the required time
interval is chosen such that the it is matched with the
newly generated k-bit value corresponding to it in the
channel table. The major advantages of frequency
hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is that it can be
programmed to intentionally skip some portions of
spectrum. FHSS requires shorter time for acquisition
but very large bandwidth. FHSS is usually used for
WiFi (WLAN) and Bluetooth signals [8]. There are
also two basic classifications for FHSS namely: Slow
FHSS (Multiple symbols are transmitted in one
frequency hop) and Fast FHSS (Multiple hops are
required to transmit one symbol)
III. SYSTEM MODEL and SIMULATION
RESULTS
A. Spread spectrum modulation using DSSS and
FHSS using BPSK scheme
In this work, we exploit the property of the DSSS and
FHSS scheme for defense and military applications,
where a defense vehicle on the move will want to
convey its location to the central control room as a
part of periodic update or location updates in cases of
emergency. Employing spread spectrum techniques
will ensure that no third party can access this
information being communicated to the control room.
Fig 2: Spread Spectrum Block
Diagram
In DSSS Modulation, initially the input signal is
multiplied using randomly generated pseudo random
noise or PN sequence which has more bit rate when
compared to the original input signal. Pseudo random
noise is a sequence of binary numbers which is
produced randomly. The resultant multiplied signal
will be the length of the pseudo random bit sequence.
The output of this is then modulated using BPSK
scheme. In BPSK modulation the resultant multiplied
signal is modulated using a carrier signal. This way
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K34-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-8113-8

the overall signal is spread over a much wider

bandwidth. The signal that reaches the receiver is
usually added with the noise from the receiver
channel. During the channel transmission of the
modulated signal the signal gets disturbed using the
Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) which has
got a normal distribution with flat power spectral
density.

In FHSS modulation, the input signal is BPSK

modulated with a narrowband carrier signal. The
modulated signal is then transmitted by rapidly
switching the signal over many frequency channels.
The sequence of channels, which in turn determines
the frequency of our carrier is dependent on the
spreading code. i,e, the new k-bit value produced by
the PN code determines the carrier frequency for that Fig 3: Identified locations in the state of Kerala
particular time interval. The advantage of this carrier
frequency hopping is that the signal bandwidth gets
increased. The resultant FHSS signal will have
various frequency components. Fig 2 represents the
schematic diagram of spread spectrum technique
implemented here.

For analyzing the capabilities of the modulation

schemes for our application, the latitudes and
longitudes of four different locations from four places
in Kerala are taken from Google Maps. Fig 3 shows
four different locations in Kerala which will be the
secure data for transmission. Table 1 lists out the
captured data. The decimal form of this locations are
converted to its binary equivalent which serves as the
input signal. The simulations are performed using
Matlab, which is a highly effective technical
computing tool.

Fig 4 shows the DSSS modulation using BPSK

scheme whereas Fig 5 shows the results of FHSS
modulation scheme. Fig 4: DSSS modulation using BPSK a) input signal for
DSSS modulation b) Input signal with increased no: of
bits c) Pseudorandom bit sequence d) multiplied signal
output of input signal and Pseudo random bit sequence e) the
modulated signal using BPSK scheme

B. Spread spectrum demodulation using DSSS and

FHSS using BPSK scheme

The PN sequence we are using in the spread spectrum

Table 1: Latitudes and Longitudes of four locations
technique is known only to the transmitter and
receiver. So the receiver can use the same PN
sequence to counteract the effect of PN sequence on
the transmitted signal to reconstruct the original
signal back. By employing longer PN sequence with

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Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K34-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-8113-8

more bit rate we can enhance the signal to noise ratio Demodulated signal using carrier b) Despreaded signal with
on the channel known as processing gain [1]. PN
sequence c) Reconstructed
signal

Fig 7: FHSS demodulation of noise added received signal a)De-

spreaded signal with PN sequence b) Demodulated signal
Fig 5: FHSS modulation using BPSK a) input signal for using carrier c) Reconstructed signal
FHSS modulation b)input signal with BPSK modulated c)
Frequency hopped signal signal

At the FHSS receiver, the signal at the receiver is first

The received signal consist of the transmitted signal
and an additive interference. The receiver
implementation is achieved with signal demodulation
as shown in the system block diagram. This is then
multiplied with the pseudo random code to regenerate
the original input bit stream. When this is done, only
then does the data that was generated with the same
spreading code become regenerated. This binary data
is then converted to its decimal form.
de-spread using the exact spreading signal used in the
transmitter and then demodulated signal is multiplied
using the narrow band carrier to obtain the original
data. This data is then converted back to its decimal
form to get the location. .Here Fig 6 shows the DSSS
demodulation of noise added received signal whereas
Fig 7 shows the FHSS demodulation of noise added
received signal. Fig 8 shows the power spectral
density of DSSS signal and Fig 9 shows the power
spectral density of FHSS signal.

Fig 6: DSSS demodulation of noise added received signal

a) Fig 8: Power spectral density(PSD) of DSSS a) PSD of
normal modulation b) PSD of DSSS signal

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Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19K34-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-8113-8

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normal modulation b) PSD of FHSS signal Wideband Systems’, International Conference on
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wide range of frequencies. This is extremely
desirable in applications like defense and military
applications, where the defense vehicle would want to
communicate its location to the army control room,
but not want any third party to intercept its location for
the risk of getting targeted.

So here in spread spectrum, when the power spectrum

is low it is less prone to outside interference and third
party find it difficult to distinguish from noise level.
Proper filtering and removal of the Gaussian noise
from the channel we can yield better results at the
receiver using this spread spectrum technology.

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