Investigating the Effects of Intentional Interference on Conventional and Spread Spectrum Systems

The dissemination of digital communications raises concerns about their possible malicious use. Countermeasures with intentional interference can be used to inhibit the misuse of these technologies. This article compares the effectiveness of some jamming techniques, namely (i) single-tone, (ii) multitones, (iii) narrow-band noise (NBN), (iv) tone pulse, (v) NBN pulse, and (vi) swept jamming. The jamming techniques are evaluated against conventional binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) communication systems. Based on the bit error rate curves obtained through the simulation, the performance of the two systems under the action of each jamming technique evaluated in the work is compared. It is confirmed that the spread spectrum brings significant performance gains in interference scenarios. Furthermore, single-tone jamming is the most effective technique against conventional BPSK systems. Regarding the DSSS system, the most effective jamming technique will depend on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) under which the interfered receiver is evaluated.