Multiple Access to a Hard-Limiting Communication-Satellite Repeater

This paper analyzes the communication capability of a hard-limiting satellite repeater when spread-spectrum signals are used for asynchronous access multiplexing. It derives formal results which indicate the most suitable system bandwidth and the resulting maximum number of simultaneous users as a function of the ratio of the received signal power (over the entire system bandwidth) from the satellite to the available noise power density at the ground station receiver. Equally important, the paper sets forth the assumptions and approximations necessary to achieve the formal results and examines their weaknesses.