A CDMA overlay system using frequency-diversity spread spectrum

The frequency bands currently used by existing narrow-band users might be shared with a code-division multiple-access (CDMA) spread-spectrum (SS) overlay system. Thus, the spectral efficiency is improved, providing more capacity for future personal communications services. Since both narrow- and wide-band signals interfere with each other, an SS modulation scheme with a good resistance to narrow-hand interference results in an increased number of acceptable overlay users. We study a frequency-diversity SS modulation scheme for which optimal detection in the presence of narrow-band interference is easy to implement. The acceptable number of overlay users is evaluated and compared to that of conventional direct-sequence SS (DS-SS) modulation schemes with and without interference rejection filters. The proposed system also presents the following advantage: by suppressing transmission of replicas where narrow-band signals (NBSs) are present, the mutual interference can be avoided completely.