An asymptotic analysis of DS/SSMA communication systems with random polyphase signature sequences

Direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple-access (DS/SSMA) communication systems with random m-phase sequences, for even m, are considered. By examining the asymptotic behavior of the normalized multiple-access interference (MAI), the authors find that a system with random m-phase sequences, for m>4, should have the same performance as one with random quadriphase sequences asymptotically. However, a system, with random m-phase sequences, for m⩾4, may perform better than one with random binary sequences when the number of simultaneous users is relatively small. A new Gaussian approximation is proposed to estimate the probabilities of error in these systems. In two cases, the new approximation reduces to established results which have been shown to provide close estimates to the probabilities of error