A comparison of CDMA and frequency hopping in a cellular environment

This paper compares the performances of direct sequence code division multiple access (CDMA) and frequency hopping (FH) schemes in a cellular multiuser environment. The multiuser channel model incorporates the effects of propagation, frequency selective fading, and interference among users in the presence of a constrained system bandwidth. This channel model is applicable for cellular mobile communications, as well as other forms of personal communications. The CDMA and FH systems are compared using BPSK modulation. The main point of contrast between these systems is that the orthogonal hopping patterns in a FH system result in a decreased additive interference power, however the frequency spreading nature of CDMA results in the ability to combat fading. An information theoretic analysis is presented, which shows that system capacities are far above the performances achieved using simple coding schemes