Performance analysis of multicarrier CDMA systems with parallel and serial concatenated coding in fading channels

The authors present a bit error rate performance analysis of multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems with turbo and serial concatenated convolutional coding (SCCC) in multipath fading channels. The performance analysis is done for maximal ratio combining and minimum mean square error combining detection in the downlink system. Upper bounds to the average bit error probability are presented for a punctured turbo code and for an SCCC code of similar decoding complexity. These analytical bounds are derived for fully interleaved Rayleigh fading channels. The bit error rate performance is also verified by simulations in the regions of low signal-to-noise ratios. The analytical and simulation results illustrate the relative merits of the turbo and SCCC codes for MC-CDMA systems and their suitability to achieve very low error rates in wireless data applications.