Performance analysis of spread spectrum system over fading channel models

Wireless communication channel due to multipath propagation phenomenon is prone to various transmission obstacles like noise, interference, fading, and other distortions. These multiple path signals cause variation in signal strength of received signal. Therefore it is important to study the effects of multipath propagation phenomenon in designing the wireless communication systems. Spread spectrum system is a special system which is known to overcome multipath propagation problems. To know its effect against fading environment the performance of spread spectrum communication system is tested under fading channel environment like Rayleigh and Ricean. Additive White Gaussian noise (AWGN) model excludes the effects of fading, interference and dispersion. This paper investigates the performance of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) systems in idealistic AWGN channel and fading channel environment using Rayleigh and Ricean channel models. From the values of BER Vs. Eb/N0 it is found that the performance of system under fading channels like Rayleigh channel and Ricean channel is close to non-fading channel environment which proves the importance of spread spectrum system.