Spread Spectrum Communications

• Spread Spectrum is a means of transmission in which

the data sequence occupies a bandwidth in excess of
the minimum bandwidth necessary to send it.
– Effectively the signal is mapped to a higher dimension signal
space

• Signal spreading is done before transmission by using a

spreading sequence. The same sequence is used at the
receiver to retrieve the signal.

• Spread Spectrum is most effective against interference

• Main commercial applications in wireless and GPS.

1
Generating the Spreading (Pseudo-
Noise) Sequence
• The pseudo-noise (PN) sequence is a periodic binary sequence
that is generated by means of a feedback shift register.

• The feedback shift register consists of m-flip flops and a logic circuit
that perform modulo-2 (X-OR) arithmetic. Flip Flops are regulated
by single timing clock.

• A sequence with period N= 2m-1 is called Maximal-Length sequence

2
 PN Sequence: Example

s1 s2 s3
1 0 0
1 1 0
1 1 1
0 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1
1 0 0

Spreading code  0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 . . .
Assume initial state is 1 0 0

3
MAXIMAL LENGTH SEQUENCE GENERATOR FOR m =3
 Properties of maximal length
sequences
1. BALANCED PROPERTY : In each period of maximal length sequence ,
the number of 1’s is always one more than number of 0’s.

2. RUN PROPERTY: Among the runs of 1s and of 0s in each period of a

maximal length sequence , one half the runs of each kind are of length one,
One fourth are of length two , one eighth of length three and so on.

total number of runs = (N+1)/2

3. CORRELATION PROPERTY: The autocorrelation function of a maximal

length Sequence is periodic and binary valued.

4
 Properties of Maximal-Length
Sequences
• Period of sequence is N. let c(t) is maximal length seq.
• T =NT
b c Autocorrelation function of a periodic signal c(t) is

Tb
1
R c     2
T c  t  c  t   dt
Tb  b
2

 N 1
 1    Tc
R c     NT c
  1 for the rest of the period
 N
5
 Power spectral density
For m = 3, N = 7

6
1 2 3 4 5

Assume initial state 1 0 0 0 0

7
Maximal length sequences lengths 2 through 8

Shift reg length m feedback taps

2 [2, 1]
3 [ 3, 1]
4 [ 4, 1]
5 [ 5, 2] [ 5,4,3,2] [5,4,2,1]
6 [6, 1] [6,5,2,1] [6,5,3,2]
7 [7,1] [7,3] [7,3,2,1] [7,4,3,2] [7,6,4,2]
[7,6,3,1] [7,6,5,2] [ 7,5,4,3,2,1]
8 [ 8,4,3,2] [8,6,5,3] [8,6,5,2] [8,5,3,1]
[8,6,5,1] [ 8,7,6,1] [8,7,6,5,2,1]
[8,6,4,3,2,1]

8
Direct sequence Spread Spectrum-
b(t) m(t)
x
Data signal Transmitted signal

c(t) PN signal

TRANSMITTER
m t   b  t   c  t 
M  f   B f  * C  f 
B(f)
M(f)

9
 Main Operation
Say 1 if v >0
m(t) r(t) z(t) Tb
r(t) v Decision
+ x ∫ dt device Say 0 if v <0
0

i(t)
c(t)
Interference signal Threshold = 0

CHANNEL RECEIVER

r  t   m(t )  i (t )  c(t )  b t   i  t 
z  t   c t   r  t 
z  t   c  t  b t   c  t   i  t 
2 Alteration of 1 and -1 will be

c  t = 1
Destroyed 2

z  t   b t   c  t   i  t  10
b(t) is reproduced at the multiplier output in receiver.

interference i(t) is c(t) i(t).

Spreading code will affect the interference just as it did the

original signal.

b(t) is narrowband whereas c(t) i(t) is wideband. hence by

applying it to low pass filter most of spurious power is
filtered out.

Low pass filtering is done by integrator.

Finally decision is made by receiver.

11
 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum with
Coherent BPSK (DS/BPSK)
Firstly it converts binary data sequence in to NRZ waveform b(t) then

Two stages of modulation

1) multiplier with data signal and PN signal
2) binary PSK modulator

So transmitted signal is DS/BPSK

The phase modulation θ (t) of x(t) has one of two values 0 and π .

Polarity of b(t ) at time t Polarity of b(t ) at time t

+ -
Polarity + 0 π
of PN π 0

Seq. -
12
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
with Coherent BPSK (DS/BPSK)

(a) Transmitter (b) receiver 13

Receiver consist of Two stages of demodulation

1) coherent detector -- received signal and locally generated carrier to a

product modulator followed by LPF whose BW is equal to m(t).

2) Spectrum de spreading followed by integrator.

In this spectrum spreading is performed prior to phase modulation.

For purpose of analysis it is more convenient to interchange the order of

these operations.

It is permitted because both are linear operations.

14
 Analysis

y  t   x (t )  j (t )  c (t )  s  t   j  t 
u  t   c t   y t 
u  t   c  t  s t   c t   j t 
2

z t   s t   c t   j t 
15
16
 Analysis
 2
consider the set of orthonormal basis:  cos 2f ct  kTc  t   k  1Tc
k  t    Tc
Tc is the chip duration and  0 otherwise
N is the number of chips 
per bit (Tb).  2
~  sin 2f ct  kTc  t   k  1Tc
k  t    Tc
K = 0,1,….N-1  0 otherwise


2 Eb
x t   c t   s  t    c t   cos 2f c t 
Tb
Signal Component
Eb N 1
x t     ck  k  t  0  t  Tb
N k 0
+ for bit 1
- for bit 0 17
 Jammer likes to place all of is energy in exactly same
signal space as x(t).so we hope that it know signal BW. But
there is no way that it know signal phase.
N 1 N 1
~~
j t    jkk  t    jk k  t 
k 0 k 0
Tb

jk   j (t )
0
k (t )dt

Tb
~ ~
Jamming
jk  
0
j (t )k (t )dt
Component
Tb N 1 N 1
1 1 1 ~2
J  j  t  dt 
2
 j 
2
k  jk
Tb 0
Tb k 0 Tb k 0
N 1 N 1
~
The best strategy

k 0
j   jk2
2
k
k 0
Jammer can apply N 1
2
To place equal energy
To cosine & sine coordinates
J
Tb

k 0
jk2
18
 Coherent detector output v T
2 b
vcj   c t  j  t  cos 2f c t dt
Tb 0

2 b
T  k 1 Tc
u  t  cos  2f c t  d t 2 N 1
Tb 0  j  t  cos 2f t  dt
v vcj   ck
Tb k 0
c
kT c
Tb
2
v
Tb   s  t   c  t  j  t   cos  2f t  dt  v
c s  vcj
0
Tc N 1 Tc N 1
vcj   k k cj T
Tb k 0
c j  V  C k 0
j
k k
b
2E b
s t    cos  2f c t  0  t  Tb
Tb
p(Ck  1)  p(Ck  1)  1 / 2
Tb
2
vs 
Tb  s  t  cos  2f t  dt  
0
c Eb E[Vcj ]  jk p(Ck  1)  jk p (Ck  1)

 
E Vcj  0

 
N 1
1 JTc
Var Vcj | j 
N

k 0
jk2 
2
19
Output signal to noise ratio is instantaneous peak power divided by
Variance of equivalent noise component.

Average input signal power at receiver input is Eb / Tb .

Input noise J .

2 Eb
SNRO 
JTc
Eb Tb
SNRI 
J
SNRO 2Tb

SNRI Tc

Tb/Tc is called the processing gain (PG) 20

 Probability of Error
• vcj is a random variable with
zero mean and variance
v   Eb  vcj
JTc/2
• vcj can be viewed as a white
noise with zero mean and  2 Eb     
pe  Q   Q 2 Eb   Q 2 Eb 
variance N0/2 = JTc/2  N0


 JT
 c


 J
 0


– Assuming Gaussian distribution
for the jamming component, the
probability of error due to
jamming
 2 Eb 
• When noise and jamming 
pe  Q 

exist the probability of error is  N0  J 0 
21
 Eb  PTb P is average signal power

Eb  Tb   P 
     
N 0  Tc   J 
J PG
  Jamming Margin
 P  Eb N 0

(Jamming margin)dB = (processing gain)dB- 10log Eb N0

22
Frequency-Hopped (FH) Spread
Spectrum
Processing gain can be made larger by employing a PN sequence with
narrow chip duration.

However capabilities of physical devices used to generate the PN

sequence impose a practical limit.

Processing gain so attained is not enough to overcome the effects of

some jammer.

One method is to force jammer to cover a wider spectrum by randomly

hopping the data modulated carrier from one frequency to other Called
Frequency Hop (FH) spread spectrum.

23
 Frequency-Hopped (FH) Spread
Spectrum
Information
Sequence
Binary data
FH/MFSK
Non coherent
M-ary FSK Mixer Mixer M-ary FSK
Encoder Channel Decoder
Modulator BPF BPF detector

carrier
Frequency
PN Synthesizer
Sequence Frequency
Generator Synthesizer
PN
Sequence
Generator
• FH/SS is usually used with Binary FSK or M-ary FSK

• The carrier frequency is determined by the output sequence from a PN generator(k

bit segment of PN sequence) drive synthesizer so 2 k
Frequencies to hop.

• Slow hopping system has a hopping rate that is lower than the information rate
• Several information symbols are transmitted by the same carrier frequency
• Fast hopping system has a hopping rate that is
-One information symbol is transmitted by different carrier frequencies. 24
Slow Frequency Hopping Example
Number of bits per MFSK
symbol = 2  M = 4
Rs = Rb /K ; K = Log2M
Here K=2
Rc = max(Rh, Rs) = Rs

Rh = hop rate

Rs = symbol rate

Rc = chip rate
Length of PN segment per
hop k = 3
Total number of frequency
hops = 23 = 8 25
Slow Frequency Hop Spread Spectrum
Using MFSK (M=4, k=2)

26
Fast Frequency Hopping Example

Number of bits per MFSK

symbol = 2  M = 4
Rs = Rb/2
Rc = max(Rh, Rs) = Rh
Length of PN segment per
hop = 3
Total number of frequency
hops = 23 = 8

27
Fast Frequency Hop Spread Spectrum
Using MFSK (M=4, k=2)

28
 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
• Multiple users can use the same channel as long as different users
are assigned different PN sequence (code)
– Several users can transmit simultaneously on the same channel
• The transmissions from other users will look like interference.
• CDMA main application is wireless communication.
– CDMA is the wireless standard for North America
• Assuming all users have the same power, Ps, the number of user Nu
that can be supported is given by:

 N u  1  Ps 
PG
Ps Eb J 0

29