Statistical modeling of bit-error-rates in asynchronous multicarrier CDMA and direct-sequence CDMA systems

This paper presents a method for modeling the bit-error-rate (BER) probability density functions (pdf) of asynchronous Multicarrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) and Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DSCDMA) systems. An uplink channel is considered and it is assumed that the only channel distortion introduced by the channel is caused by the timing misalignments. Deterministic spreading sequences are used and the pdfs of each interferer's multiple access interference (MAI) are determined as a function of timing offset. A Nakagami-m distribution is fitted to the pdf of the total MAI power and the BER pdf is obtained directly from this Nakagami-m pdf. Both Walsh-Hadamard (WH) and Gold sequences are analyzed and the mean BERs are compared amongst the two multiple access systems for both sets of spreading sequences of varying lengths. The results suggest a higher resistance to MAI in the MC-CDMA technique for the considered environment.