OCDD/CDMA: a new DS/CDMA with orthonormal code diversity detection

The paper presents a new spread spectrum communication system called orthonormal code diversity detection (OCDD)/CDMA system based on the novel concept of orthonormal-basis diversity which is a generalization of the existing spread spectrum diversity concepts such as path diversity and frequency diversity. The OCDD/CDMA system is similar to the conventional DS/CDMA system in the transmitter structure, but is different in the receiver structure as it employs the extended orthonormal basis-function set which is the union of the Walsh basis-functions multiplied by the PN sequences and, optionally, their delayed replicas. The received signal is matched to the extended basis functions, and the matched signal components are combined together after individual channel compensation. The proposed OCDD/CDMA system exhibits the bit error performance which is much improved over the conventional DS/CDMA system using maximal ratio combing. In addition, it is robust to the chip timing error, which becomes more crucial in the future DS/CDMA systems having a higher data rate and smaller chip interval. From the simulation results, we confirm that the OCDD/CDMA system is a unique spread spectrum communication technique that can effectively increase the diversity utilization in the slowly fading channel, overcoming the inherent problems in the DS/CDMA and OFDM/CDMA systems.