Effect of synchronization errors on the performance of multicarrier CDMA systems

A synchronous multicarrier (MC) code-division multiple access (CDMA) system using inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) for the downlink mobile communication system operating in a frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel is analyzed. Both carrier frequency offset and timing offset are considered in the analysis. Bit error rate performance of the system with both equal gain combining and maximum ratio combining are obtained. The performance is compared to that of the conventional system using correlation receiver. It is shown that when subcarrier number is large, the system using IFFT/FFT has nearly the same performance as the conventional one, while when the subcarrier number is small, the system using IFFT/FFT will suffer slightly worse performance in the presence of carrier frequency offset.