FCMA error probability in AWGN and multiple access noise

An analysis of the Frequency Comb Multiple Access (FCMA) system error performance in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is presented. FCMA is a multiple access technique proposed for very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite communications networks. The analysis is limited by assuming that multi-tone user symbols are orthogonal in frequency, that any two symbols can have at most one coincidence, that the receiver is based on matched filters, and that user transmissions are synchronized in time. Upper bounds on the error performance are derived and compared to the simulation results. Possible improvements obtained by system parameter variation and applying Reed-Solomon codes are evaluated