Chapter 3: Spread Spectrum Techniques

3.1 Introduction:
Spread spectrum communication systems are widely used today in
a variety of applications for different purposes such as:
1- access of same radio spectrum by multiple users (multiple access),
2- anti-jamming capability (so that signal transmission cannot be
interrupted or blocked by spurious transmission from enemy),
3- interference rejection,
4- secure communications,
5- multi-path protection, etc.

However, irrespective of the application, all spread spectrum

communication systems satisfy the following criteria (properties):
(i) As the name suggests, bandwidth of the transmitted signal is much
greater than that of the message that modulates a carrier.
(ii) The transmission bandwidth is determined by a factor independent
of the message bandwidth.

The spread-spectrum concept has developed from the principle of

Shannon theorem, where the channel capacity (C) can be defined by:

C = B· log2(1 + SNR)

If data is transmitted at a rate of Rb over a channel occupying a bandwidth

much greater than Rb, Shannon theorem indicates that reliable
communications can be achieved at a reduced SNR. However, if the
transmitted power is kept fixed, even though the power density is
substantially reduced, a surplus in the SNR is generated and can be used
to combat interference and jamming. This surplus in SNR is called
processing gain.
Note: C (max)=2B

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Advantages of Spread Spectrum (SS) Techniques
 Reduced interference: In SS systems, interference from undesired
sources is considerably reduced due to the processing gain of the
system.

 Low susceptibility to multi-path fading: Because of its inherent

frequency diversity properties, a spread spectrum system offers
resistance to degradation in signal quality due to multi-path fading.
This is particularly beneficial for designing mobile communication
systems.
 Co-existence of multiple systems: With proper design of pseudo-
random sequences, multiple spread spectrum systems can co-exist.
 Immunity to jamming: An important feature of spread spectrum is
its ability to withstand strong interference, sometimes generated by
an enemy to block the communication link. This is one reason for
extensive use of the concepts of spectrum spreading in military
communications.
 Privacy of transmission: The transmitted information over the
spread spectrum system cannot be recovered without knowledge of
the spreading code sequence. Thus, the privacy of individual user
communications is protected in the presence of other users.
Furthermore, the fact that spreading is independent of the modulation
process gives the system some flexibility in choosing from a variety
of modulation schemes.

Types of SS Based on the kind of spreading modulation, spread

spectrum systems are broadly classified as:-
(i) Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FH-SS) systems
(ii) Direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) systems
(iii) Time hopping spread spectrum (TH-SS) systems.
(iv) Hybrid systems

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3.2 Frequency hopping spread-spectrum system:
Frequency hopping entails the transmission carrier frequency hopping
between available channels within the spread spectrum band. A narrow
spectral band and an individual carrier frequency at the centre of the band
define each transmitted channel. Successive carrier frequencies are
chosen in accordance with the pseudo-random phases of the spreading
code sequence.

There are two widely used FH schemes:

(1) Fast frequency hopping where one complete, or a fraction of the data
symbol, is transmitted within the duration between carrier hops.
Consequently, for a binary system, the frequency hopping rate may
exceed the data bit rate.

(2) On the other hand, in a slow frequency hopping system, more than
one symbol is transmitted in the interim time between frequency hops.

Figure 3.1 illustrates how the carrier frequency hops with time. Let
time duration between hops be Th and data bit duration be denoted by
Tb, then:
Th ≤ Tb for fast hopping
Th > Tb for slow hopping

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 Figure 3.1 Carrier frequency hopping from one frequency to another.

The basic FH modulation system, depicted in Figure 3.2(a), comprises

a digital phase or frequency shift keying modulator and a frequency
synthesizer. The latter generates carrier frequencies according to the
pseudo-random phases of the spreading code sequence that is then mixed
with the data carrier to originate the FH signal.
In the basic FH receiver, shown in Figure 3.2(b), the received FH signal
is first filtered using a wideband bandpass filter and then mixed with a
replica of the FH carrier. The mixer output is applied to the appropriate
demodulator. A coherent demodulator may be used when a PSK carrier is
received.

Figure 3.2 (a) Basic FH modulator; (b) Basic FH receiver.

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3.3 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS-SS) System
In direct-sequence systems (DS-SS), the narrow band data signal is
multiplied by a large bandwidth signal which is a pseudo random noise
code (PN code), as shown in Fig. 3.3. The transmitted signal is recovered
by correlating the received signal with the PN code used by the
transmitter.

Fig. 3.3. In DS-SS, each narrow band data signal is multiplied by a PN code.

Example 1:

For a DS-SS system show that for the ship code 1 -1 -1 1 -1 1 and the
orthogonal code 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 the data signal is received correctly.
(A) Receiving by the transmitted code

In the receiver the recovered code is compared in the correlator to the

received signaling element. If the phases are the same, a +ve 1 is
produced, if not a -ve 1 is produced. It can be seen that the output of the

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correlator will be +6 in case of logic 1, and -6 in case of logic 0. Then a
threshold circuit can be used to decide the received bit is 1 logic or 0 logic.
(B) Receiving by the orthogonal code

when an orthogonal code is compared the output of the correlator is 0.

A block diagram of the modulator that generates DS-SS signals is shown
in Figure 3.4. The binary data m(t) is first multiplied by the high rate code
sequence C(t) to acquire the energy spreading. The baseband signal Sn(t)
is filtered to confine energy within the bandwidth defined by the code rate.
The carrier modulation commonly used in spread spectrum is phase shift
keying. Considering Figure 3.4, we get:
Sn(t) = m(t) · C(t)
The baseband signal Sn(t) is convoluted with the impulse response of the
spectrum-shaping filter to yield y(t):
y(t) = Sn(t) ∗ h(t)
where * denotes convolution
The bandpass signal SS(t) = [Sn(t) ∗ h(t)] · cos (ωCt )

Figure 3.4 Direct sequence spread-spectrum modulation system.

A basic block diagram of the matched filter receiver is shown in Figure

3.5. The received bandpass signal SS(t) is converted to an equivalent
complex lowpass signal A(t) by mixing with a locally generated coherent
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carrier. The lowpass spread spectrum is caused to collapse by multiplying
by a locally generated in-phase copy of the transmitted code sequence.
The de-spread signal B is matched filtered and sampled. The complex
lowpass signal is
A(t) = SS(t) · cos (ωCt)
The de-spread signal is
B(t) = A(t) · [C(t) ∗ h(t)]
The output of the matched filter D(T)

The receiver decodes the data according to the following rule:

D(T) > 0 decode binary ‘1’ otherwise decode binary ‘0’.

Figure 3.5 Matched filter spread-spectrum receiver.

Example 2
A binary data stream of 4 digits [1011] is spread using an 8-chip code
sequence C(t)=[01 10 10 01]. The spread data phase modulates a carrier
using binary phase shift keying. The transmitted spread-spectrum signal
is exposed to interference from a tone at the carrier frequency but with 30
degrees phase shift. The receiver generates an in-phase copy of the code
sequence and a coherent carrier from a local oscillator. Assuming
negligible noise, determine the detected signal at the output of the
receiver.
Solution

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 Let the data stream be denoted as m(t). The baseband spread-spectrum
data mS(t) can be represented as:
mS(t) = m(t) · C(t) = [01 10 10 01, 10 01 01 10, 01 10 10 01, 01 10 10 01]
Since the data is transmitted as binary PSK, we map 0→1 and 1→−1.
The baseband spread-spectrum signal, mS(t), now modulates a carrier at
frequency ωC and the transmitted signal, mt(t), is given by:
mt(t) = mS(t) · cosωCt.
The received signal mr(t) comprised the baseband signal mt(t), the
interfering tone I(t), and additive white noise n(t). However in this
example we ignore the noise so that signal plus interference is:
mr(t) = mt(t) + I(t)
The interfering signal is a sinusoidal waveform at frequency ωc with 30
degrees phase shift:
I(t) = cos(ωCt + 30)
Thus, the received signal
mr(t)=mt(t)+cos(ωCt+30)
The front end stage of the receiver mixes the received signal mr(t) with
the local oscillator by multiplying mr(t) by the reference carrier, (cosωCt)
to compose the baseband signal, mb(t). Therefore:
mb(t) = mt(t) · cosωCt + cos(ωCt + 30) · cosωCt
mb(t) = 0.5mS(t)[1 + cos 2ωCt] + 0.5[cos 30 + cos(2ωCt + 30)]
Assume that 2ωC is removed by filtering and the signal level adjusted to
unit by amplification then:
mb(t) = mS(t) + cos 30
The next stage in the detection provokes the collapse of the spread
spectrum into its original narrowband data. The de-spread signal md(t) is
given by multiplying mb(t) by the locally generated code sequence, that
is:
md(t) = mb(t) · C(t) = [mS(t) + cos 30] · C(t)
= m(t) · C(t) · C(t) + 0.866C(t)
Now, C(t)·C(t) is a constant which can be normalized to one. The detector
samples the de-spread signal at the code sequence rate and adds the

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samples to be compared with a threshold level. The summation of the
sample of C(t) when sampled at the code rate is

Therefore md(t)=m(t) The output of the receiver is [10 11].

3.4. Hybrid DS/FH systems

The DS/FH Spread Spectrum technique is a combination of direct-
sequence and frequency hopping schemes. One data bit is divided over
several carrier frequencies, as shown in figure 3.6. As the FH-sequence
and the PN-codes are coupled, a user uses a combination of an FH-
sequence and a PN-code.

Figure. 3.6 A hybrid DS-FH spreading scheme

In special applications such as anti-jamming work, there may be a

need for a hybrid system using both the DS and FH spread-spectrum
schemes. A hybrid system is shown conceptually in Figure 3.7. Two code
sequences are employed in this system. The DS/FH hybrid modulation
system is shown in Figure 3.7(a); first code sequence is used to generate
the DS-SS signal as described previously. The resulting signal is linearly
modulated on a hopping carrier frequency generated by a frequency
synthesizer according to the second code sequence. A replica of the
hopping carrier is generated locally at the receiver using a coherent
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hopping code sequence. The DS/FH hybrid receiver is shown in Figure
3.7(b) where the received signal is filtered and mixed with the hopping
frequency and the output of the mixer is de-spread using the DS code.

(a)

(b)
Figure 3.7 (a) Direct sequence/Frequency hopping spread-spectrum transmitting
system; (b) DS/FH spread-spectrum hybrid receiving system.

3.5. Time Hopping

A typical time hopping signal is illustrated in figure 3.8. The time is
divided into frames with time length TF, which in turn are subdivided into
M time slots Ts. As the message is transmitted only one time slot in the
frame is modulated with information. This time slot is chosen using PN
generator.

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 Figure 3.8. Time hopping spread spectrum
All of the message bits gathered in the previous frame are then
transmitted in a burst during the time slot selected by the PN generator. If
we let: TF = frame duration, k = number of input message bits in one
frame, then the message input bit rate fb= K/TF. If these K bits are
transmitted in one time slot Ts, the transmission rate is fs = K.M/TF .
Thus, the transmitted signal bit rate is M times the input message bit rate.
Also, the transmitted bandwidth is M times the input bandwidth.

A block diagram of time hopping transmitter is shown in figure 3.9,

where the on-off switch logic unit is used to control the positions that the
sent message bits will hop from one to the other. A typical time hopping
receiver is shown in Figure 3.10. The PN code generator drives an on-off
switch in order to accomplish switching at a given time in the frame. The
output of this switch is then demodulated appropriately. Each message
burst is stored and re-timed to the original message rate in order to recover
the information. A Time hopping is at times used in conjunction with
other spread spectrum modulations such as DS or FH.

Figure 3.9 Time hopping transmitter.

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 Figure 3.10 Time hopping receiver.

3.6. Processing gain

Digital signal transmission is normally preceded by signal processing
such as filtering, modulation and coding. At the receiver, processing like
matched filtering and detection is used to recover the data. In each of these
processing methods, certain characteristics of the input signal are being
modified or amplified. The effectiveness of the processor is measured
with a factor called the processing gain Gp defined as:

𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐮𝐭

Gp =
𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐩𝐮𝐭

In spread-spectrum systems, the parameter of interest is the signal

spectrum at the input (Bb) and the spectrum of the output (Bs). Thus:
𝐵𝑠
𝐺𝑝 =
𝐵𝑏
the processing gain (Gp) expresses the bandwidth expansion factor.

 For a DS-SS system:

𝑅𝑐
𝐺𝑝 =
𝑅𝑏
where Rc is the code sequence rate and Rb is the data bit rate.

 The processing gain generated by FH-SS system is:

Gp = number of available channels = N

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Example 1:
A speech conversation is transmitted by a DS-SS system. The speech is
converted to PCM using an anti-aliasing filter with a cut-off frequency of
3.4 kHz and using 256 quantization levels. It is anticipated that the
processing gain should not be less than 23 dB.

i. Find the required chip rate.

ii. If the speech was transmitted by an FH-SS system, what would be the
number of hopping channels?
Solution
i. Sampling the speech at the Nyquist frequency generates 2×3.4=6.8 k
samples/sec.
We encode these samples using 256 quantization levels. Thus each sample
is represented by n bits where
256 = 2n
Thus n=8

The PCM bit rate=Rb =n×6.8=54.4 k bits/sec

Processing gain >= 23dB = 199.53 = Gp = Rc/Rb
Substituting for Rb gives Rc >=10854.2 k chip/sec.
Note : Rc/Rb must be integer 
Gp=200
Rc=10880K chip/sec

ii. Applying the definition of processing gain to transmission over an FH-

SS system, we get:
Gp >= Bs/Bb = N (not less than 23 dB)
Therefore the number of FH channels N >=199.53
N=200
Example 2:
Data signal is transmitted by a DS-SS system. The maximum signal
bandwidth is 4 KHz, it is sampled by the minimum sampling rate and
converted by 6-PCM. If the processing gain is about 25 dB, and QPSK
modulation is used, find:

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i. The required chip rate.
ii. the transmitted BW

Solution
i. Sampling the speech at the Nyquist frequency generates 4*2=8 k
samples/sec.
We encode these samples using 6-PCM ===> Rb=8K*6=48Kbps
Processing gain (about) = 25dB = 316.23 = Gp = Rc/Rb
Note : Rc/Rb must be integer ---> Processing gain = 316
316= Gp = Rc/Rb
Rc=15.168 M chip/sec
ii. total transmitted BW= Rc/2 (because of using QPSK)=7.584 MHZ

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