Error Correction Coding Performance Bounds for Spread Spectrum Systems

This study was motivated by a desire to minimize the required input signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver as a first step in optimizing the anti-intercept (AI) performance of a spread spectrum system. In the absence of error correction coding, specification of the message bit rate, the transmitted signal bandwidth, and the required bit error probability can yield a required signal-to-noise ratio for each type of SS system. Error correction coding can be used to reduce the required signal-to-noise ratio. When coding is employed, lower and upper bounds on the reduction of required signal-to-noise ratio can be determined in terms of the required bit error probability and code complexity. These performance bounds are evaluated as functions of the restricted code complexity.