Application of Kirkman designs in joint detection multiple access schemes

This paper reports on the feasibility of applying Kirkman triple system in signal set design for a generic spread spectrum multiple access scheme. Kirkman designs of order 15 are examined in detail. The decodability and some of the distance properties of 7 non-isomorphic designs are evaluated. The structure of one typical design which gives an upper bound of the performance of all the possible designs is highlighted. A metric which identifies designs up to isomorphism is proposed.