Area Spectral Efficiency of Soft-Decision Space–Time–Frequency Shift-Keying-Aided Slow-Frequency-Hopping Multiple Access

Slow-frequency-hopping multiple access (SFHMA) can provide inherent frequency diversity and beneficially randomize the effects of cochannel interference. It may also be advantageously combined with our novel space-time-frequency shift keying (STFSK) scheme. The proposed system's area spectral efficiency is investigated in various cellular frequency reuse structures. Furthermore, it is compared to both classic Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK)-aided SFHMA and GMSK-assisted time-division/frequency-division multiple access (TD/FDMA). The more sophisticated third-generation wideband code-division multiple access (WCDMA) and the fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems were also included in our comparisons. We demonstrate that the area spectral efficiency of the STFSK-aided SFHMA system is higher than the GMSK-aided SFHMA and TD/FDMA systems, as well as WCDMA, but it is only 60% of the LTE system.