Multi-code multicarrier CDMA: performance analysis

A novel multi-code multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-MC-CDMA) system is proposed and analyzed in a frequency selective fading channel. By allowing each user to transmit multiple orthogonal codes, the proposed MC-MC-CDMA system can support various data rates, as required by next generation standards, and achieve spreading gain in the time domain. Multicarrier CDMA provides robustness to multipath and spreading in the frequency domain. The bit error rate of the system is analytically derived in frequency selective fading, with Gaussian noise and multiple access interference. The results show that the proposed MC-MC-CDMA system clearly outperforms both single-code multicarrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) and single-carrier multi-code CDMA in a fixed bandwidth allocation. This indicates that MC-MC-CDMA should be seriously considered for next generation cellular systems.