The MUOS-WCDMA Air Interface

WCDMA is a 3
^rd
generation wireless communication system developed for terrestrial cellular systems. The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) uses WCDMA as a basis for its waveform definition, thus exploiting the extensive development of this advanced commercial communications technology. MUOS is, however, a geosatellite system which in certain ways is a vastly different communications environment than the terrestrial cellular environment. This paper shall overview key changes to the WCDMA Layer 1 to yield the MUOS waveform definition.