Multi-Carrier DS-CDMA Transmission with Frequency-domain Equalization

MC DS-CDMA is a combination of OFDM and time-domain spreading, while MC-CDMA is a combination of OFDM and frequency-domain spreading. In MC-CDMA, a good bit error rate (BER) performance can be achieved by using frequency-domain equalization (FDE), since the frequency diversity gain is obtained. On the other hand, the conventional MC DS-CDMA cannot obtain the frequency diversity gain. In this paper, the authors propose MC DS-CDMA that can obtain the frequency diversity gain by applying FDE. The conditional BER analysis is presented. The theoretical average BER performance in a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel is evaluated by Monte-Carlo numerical computation method using the derived conditional BER and is confirmed by computer simulation of the MC DS-CDMA signal transmission.