Some TDMA and OFDM/CDMA receiver structures for communication over the return path of the CATV network

This paper deals with the derivation and comparison of some promising TDMA and OFDM/CDMA receiver structures for communication over the return path channel of the cable TV (CATV) network. Regarding TDMA, it is shown that the performance substantially improves by using equalization. Given the slowly varying, frequency selective nature of the ingress noise, OFDM seems an interesting possible access technique to employ. Here it is considered in combination with CDMA. With respect to the performance in terms of the SNR at the input of the decision device, the TDMA structure gives better results than the OFDM/CDMA schemes. Also with respect to the design complexity TDMA seems more interesting.