Processing gain variation vs. power control in CDMA packet radio networks

In this paper, we investigate the effect of varying the processing gain in place of power control in a CDMA packet radio network. The classic CDMA protocol is modified to accommodate the variable processing gain, allowing for variable packet durations due to variable processing gain. The performance of the variable processing gain system is measured in terms of the network throughput and is compared to the performance of conventional fixed rate CDMA systems in which perfect power control is assumed. Results are first generated for a terrestrial CDMA network and extended to a low Earth orbit satellite (LEOS) communication topology. In the interference limited CDMA network, we have demonstrated that processing gain control can be used in place of power control and, depending on the details of the implementation, can achieve the same or nearly the same throughput performance