Propagation aspects of frequency hopping spread spectrum

Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FH-SS) has found a number of applications in both CDMA and TDMA cellular systems, wireless local loop, and wireless local area networks. The effect of FH-SS on mobile channel characteristics is evaluated. Employing propagation studies, statistical analysis and simulation models, it is shown that the frequency-hopped channel displays improved characteristics when compared to the non-hopped case. The short term fading statistics are improved, which can be exploited to provide an overall increase in quality-of-service. The short term statistics of the frequency-hopped channel are derived, enabling prediction of the performance of an FH system.