SPREAD SPECTRYM

Spread Spectrum
important

encoding method for wireless communications analog & digital data with analog signal spreads data over wide bandwidth makes jamming and interception harder two approaches, both in use:

Frequency Hopping : Signal broadcast over seemingly random series of frequencies Direct Sequence : Each bit is represented by multiple bits in transmitted signal- Chipping Code

Spread Spectrum Concept

Input fed into channel encoder

Produces narrow bandwidth analog signal around central frequency

Spreading code/sequence Typically generated by pseudonoise/pseudorandom number generator

Signal modulated using sequence of digits

Increases bandwidth significantly (Effect of modulation is to increase bandwidth of signal to be transmitted)

Spreads spectrum

Receiver uses same sequence to demodulate signal Demodulated signal fed into channel decoder to recover data

General Model of Spread Spectrum System

Spread Spectrum Advantages

immunity

from noise and multipath distortion- Including jamming can hide / encrypt signals

Only receiver who knows spreading code can retrieve signal

several

users can share same higher bandwidth with little interference

CDM/CDMA Mobile telephones Code division multiplexing (CDM) Code division multiple access (CDMA)

Pseudorandom Numbers
Generated

by a deterministic algorithm

not actually random but if algorithm good, results pass reasonable tests of randomness

starting

from an initial seed need to know algorithm and seed to predict sequence hence only receiver can decode signal

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

signal

is broadcast over seemingly random series of frequencies Receiver hops between frequencies in sync with transmitter Eavesdroppers hear unintelligible blips Jamming on one frequency affects only a few bits

FHSS

Signal is broadcast over seemingly random series of radio frequencies

A number of channels allocated for the FH signal Width of each channel corresponds to bandwidth of input signal
Transmitter operates in one channel at a time Bits are transmitted using some encoding scheme At each successive interval, a new carrier frequency is selected

Signal hops from frequency to frequency at fixed intervals

Channel sequence dictated by spreading code Receiver, hopping between frequencies in synchronization with transmitter, picks up message Advantages

Eavesdroppers hear only unintelligible blips Wireless Networks Spring 2005 succeed only at knocking out Attempts to jam signal on one frequency a few bits

Basic Operation
Typically

2k carriers frequencies forming 2k

channels Channel spacing corresponds with bandwidth of input Each channel used for fixed interval

300 ms in IEEE 802.11 Some number of bits transmitted using some encoding scheme
May be fractions of bit (see later)

Sequence dictated by spreading code

Frequency Hopping Example

FHSS (Transmitter)

FHSS (Receiver)

Slow and Fast FHSS

commonly

use multiple FSK (MFSK) Have frequency shifted every Tc seconds Duration of signal element is Ts seconds Slow FHSS has Tc Ts Fast FHSS has Tc < Ts FHSS quite resistant to noise or jamming

with fast FHSS giving better performance in noise (or jamming)

Slow MFSK FHSS

Fast MFSK FHSS

FHSS Performance Considerations

Typically

large number of frequencies

used

Improved resistance to jamming

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

Each bit is represented by multiple bits using a spreading code Spreading code spreads signal across wider frequency band
Spread is in direct in proportion to number of bits used 10 bit spreading code spreads signal across 10 times bandwidth of 1 bit code One method: Combine input with spreading code using XOR Input bit 1 inverts spreading code bit Input zero bit doesnt alter spreading code bit Data rate equal to original spreading code Performance similar to FHSS

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

Each bit in original signal is represented by multiple bits in the transmitted signal Spreading code spreads signal across a wider frequency band

Spread is in direct proportion to number of bits used

One technique combines digital information stream with the spreading code bit stream using exclusive-OR

Wireless Networks Spring 2005

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Example

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum System

DSSS Example Using BPSK

Approximate Spectrum of DSSS Signal

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Multiplexing Technique used with spread spectrum Start with data signal rate D

Called bit data rate

Break each bit into k chips according to fixed pattern specific to each user

Users code

New channel has chip data rate kD chips per second E.g. k=6, three users (A,B,C) communicating with base receiver R Code for A = <1,-1,-1,1,-1,1> Code for B = <1,1,-1,-1,1,1> Code for C = <1,1,-1,1,1,-1>

CDMA Example

CDMA for DSSS

CDMA Explanation

Consider A communicating with base Base knows As code Assume communication already synchronized A wants to send a 1

Send chip pattern <1,-1,-1,1,-1,1>

As code

A wants to send 0

Send chip[ pattern <-1,1,1,-1,1,-1>

Complement of As code

Decoder ignores other sources when using As code to decode

Orthogonal codes

CDMA for DSSS

n

users each using different orthogonal PN sequence Modulate each users data stream

Using BPSK

Multiply

by spreading code of user

Seven Channel CDMA Encoding and Decoding

Chapter 3
Frequency-Hopping Systems
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 Frequency

hopping

The periodic changing of the carrier frequency of a transmitted signal. The set of M possible carrier frequencies

Hopset

Frequency

hopping pattern

The sequence of carrier frequencies.

Hopping

band
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Hopping occurs over a frequency band that includes M frequency channels.

 hop

duration hopping band has bandwidth

W MB

The time interval between hops

The

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32

 If

( x) the data modulation is some form of angle modulation then the received signal for the ith hop is

dehopping

The mixing operation removes the frequencyhopping pattern from the received signal.

Frequency

hopping enables signals to hop out of frequency channels with interference or slow frequency-selective fading.

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34

 Transmission

security

The specific algorithm for generating the control bits is determined by the key and the time-of-day (TOD).
The key is a set of bits that are changed infrequently and must be kept secret. The TOD is a set of bits that are derived from the stages of the TOD counter and change with every transition of the TOD clock.

The purpose of the TOD is to vary the generator algorithm without constantly changing the key. The generator algorithm is controlled by a

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 Dwell

interval

A frequency-hopping pulse with a fixed carrier frequency occurs during a portion of the hop interval.

dwell

time

The duration of the dwell interval during which the channel symbols are transmitted.

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 The

hop duration Th is equal to the sum of the dwell time Td and the switching time Tsw.

The switching time is equal to the dead time plus the rise and fall times of a pulse.
dead time is the duration of the interval when no signal is present

The

nonzero switching time decreases the transmitted symbol duration Ts . If Tso is the symbol duration in the absence

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 Fast

frequency hopping

If there is more than one hop for each information symbol.

Slow

frequency hopping

If one or more information symbols are transmitted in the time interval between frequency hops.

Let

M denote the hopset size, B denote the bandwidth of frequency channels, and Fs denote the minimum separation

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 Symbol

errors are independent if the fading is independent in each frequency channel and each symbol is transmitted in a different frequency channel. If each of the interleaved code symbols is transmitted at the same location in each hop dwell interval, then adjacent symbols are separated by Th after the interleaving. The sufficient condition for nearly independent symbol errors is

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 For

a hopping band with bandwidth W, and a hopset with a uniform carrier separation, If nearly independent symbol errors are to be ensured, the number of frequency channels is constrained by

If

B < Bcoh equalization will not be

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 In

military applications, the ability of frequency-hopping systems to avoid interference is potentially neutralized by a repeater jammer (also known as a follower jammer), which is a device that intercepts a signal, processes it, and then transmits jamming at the same center frequency. To be effective against a frequencyhopping system, the jamming energy must reach the victim receiver before it hops to

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3.2 Modulations
FH/MFSK

system

Uses MFSK as its data modulation. One of q frequencies is selected as the carrier or center frequency for each transmitted symbol, and the set of q possible frequencies changes with each hop. An FH/MFSK signal has the form

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43

 The

effective number of frequency channels is

M : the hopset size. q : frequencies or tones in an MFSK set

For

noncoherent orthogonal signals, the MFSK tones must be separated enough that a received signal produces negligible responses in the incorrect subchannels. The frequency separation must be

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 The

bandwidth of a frequency channel for slow frequency hopping with many symbols per dwell interval is

Tb is the duration of a bit.

The

hopset size is
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Soft-Decision Decoding
We

consider an FH/MFSK system that uses a repetition code and the receiver of Figure 3.5(b). Each information symbol, which is transmitted as L code symbols, may be regarded as a codeword or as an uncoded symbol that uses diversity combining. The interference is modeled as wideband Gaussian noise uniformly distributed over part of the hopping band.

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47

Linear square-law combining

Rli is the sample value of the envelopedetector output that is associated with code symbol i of candidate information-symbol. L is the number of repetitions or code symbols.

This

metric has the advantage that no side information, which is specific information about the reliability of symbols, is required

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Nonlinear square-law combining

Noi is the two-sided power spectral density of the interference and noise over all the MFSK subchannels during code symbol i.

Variable-gain metric:

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 Suppose

that the interference is partialband jamming.

N1/2: the two-sided power-spectral density : the fraction of the hopping band with interference . It0 : the spectral density that would exist if the interference power were uniformly spread over the entire hopping band.
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 Suppose

that the interference is worstcase partial-band jamming. An upper bound on Pb is obtained by maximizing the right-hand side of (3-27) with respect to . Calculus yields the maximizing value of

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 let

L0 denote the minimizing value of L.

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 The

upper bound on Pb for worst-case partial-band jamming when L= L0 is given by

This upper bound indicates that Pb decreases

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 Substituting

(3-30) into (3-28), we obtain

This

result shows that the appropriate choice of L implies that worst-case jamming must cover three-fourths or more

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Narrowband Jamming Signals

Although

(3-31) indicates that it is advantageous to use nonbinary signaling (m > 1) when . This advantage is completely undermined when distributed, narrowband jamming signals are a threat. A sophisticated jammer with knowledge of the spectral locations of the MFSK sets can cause increased system degradation by placing one jamming tone or

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 To

assess the impact of this sophisticated multitone jamming on hard decision decoding in the receiver of Figure 3.5(b),

It is assumed that thermal noise is absent and that each jamming tone coincides with one MFSK tone in a frequency channel encompassing q MFSK tones.

Whether

a jamming tone coincides with the transmitted MFSK tone or an incorrect one, there will be no symbol error if the

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 If

a transmitted tone enters a jammed frequency channel and then with probability , the jamming tone will not coincide with the transmitted tone and will cause a symbol error after harddecision decoding. Since J/M is the probability that a frequency channel is jammed, the symbol error probability is
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denotes the energy per bit. denotes the spectral density of the interference power that would exist if it were uniformly spread over the hopping band.

This

equation exhibits an inverse linear dependence of Ps on It is observed that Ps increases with q which is the opposite of what is observed over the AWGN channel. Thus, binary FSK is advantageous against

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3.3 Hybrid Systems

Frequency-hopping

systems reject interference by avoiding it, whereas directsequence systems reject interference by spreading it. Channel codes are more essential for frequency-hopping systems than for directsequence systems.

Because partial-band interference is a more pervasive threat than high-power pulsed interference.

When

frequency-hopping and direct-

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major advantage of frequency-hopping systems

It is possible to hop into noncontiguous frequency channels over a much wider band than can be occupied by a direct-sequence signal. This advantage more than compensates for the relatively inefficient noncoherent demodulation that is usually required for frequency-hopping systems. Excluding frequency channels with steady or

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hybrid frequency-hopping directsequence system

A frequency-hopping system that uses directsequence spreading during each dwell interval Or, equivalently, a direct-sequence system in which the carrier frequency changes periodically.

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62

Hops occur periodically after a fixed number of sequence chips. Because of the phase changes due to the frequency hopping, noncoherent modulation, such as DPSK, is usually required unless the hop rate is very low. Serial-search acquisition occurs in two stages.
1.

To provide alignment of the hopping patterns.

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hybrid system curtails partial-band interference in two ways.

The hopping allows the avoidance of the interference spectrum part of the time. When the system hops into the interference, the interference is spread and filtered as in a direct-sequence system.

Large

bandwidth limits the number of available frequency channels, which increases the susceptibility to narrowband

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3.4 Applications
Anti-jamming

is an important application for spread spectrum modulations. In addition to anti-jamming, we will briefly introduce several other spread spectrum applications in this section. In describing these applications, we focus on DS-SS systems. One should note that other spread spectrum techniques also have similar applications since the main idea behind

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3.4.1 Anti-jamming
We

know that we can combat a wide-band Gaussian jammer by spreading the spectrum of the data signal. Here we consider another kind of jammersthe continuous wave (CW) jammers. Suppose the spread spectrum signal is given by
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 We

can easily see that the power spectrum of the received signal r(t) is given by

We

consider the matched filter receiver in the equivalent correlator form in Figure 3.11.

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 At

the output of the despreader, the signal z(t) can be expressed as

It

can be shown that the power spectrum of the despread signal z(t) is
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69

Before despreading, the jammer power is concentrated at frequency and the signal power is spread across a wide frequency band ([-2/Tc, 2/Tc]). The despreader spreads the jammer power into a wide frequency band ([-2/Tc, 2/Tc]) while concentrates the signal power into a much narrower band ([-2/T, 2/T]). The integrator acts like a low-pass filter to collect power of the despread signal over the frequency band ([-2/T, 2/T]).

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As a result, almost all of the signal power is collected, but only 1/Nth of the jammer power is collected. The effective power of the jammer is reduced by a factor of N. This is the reason why N is called the spreading gain.

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3.4.2 Low probability of detection

Another military-oriented application for spread spectrum is low probability of detection (LPD), which means that it is hard for an unintentional receiver to detect the presence of the signal. The idea behind this can be readily seen from Figure 3.12. When the processing gain is large enough, the spread spectrum signal hides below the white noise level. Without knowledge of the signature sequences, an unintentional receiver cannot despread the

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Therefore, it is hard for the unintentional receiver to detect the presence of the spread spectrum. We are not going to treat the subject of LPD any further than the intuition just given. A more detailed treatment can be found in [1, Ch. 10].

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2.4.3 Multipath combining

Another advantage of spreading the spectrum is frequency diversity, which is a desirable property when the channel is fading. Fading is caused by destructive interference between time-delayed replica of the transmitted signal arise from different transmission paths (multipaths). The wider the transmitted spectrum, the finer are we able to resolve multipaths at the receiver.
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Loosely speaking, we can resolve multipaths with path-delay differences larger than 1/W seconds when the transmission bandwidth is W Hz. Therefore, spreading the spectrum helps to resolve multipaths and, hence, combats fading. The best way to explain multipath fading is to go through the following simple example. Suppose the transmitter sends a bit with the value +1 in the BPSK format, i.e., the transmitted signal envelope is pT (t), where T is

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Assume that there are two transmission paths leading from the transmitter to the receiver. The first path is the direct line-of-sight path which arrives at a delay of 0 seconds and has a unity gain. The second path is a reflected path which arrives at a delay of 2Tc seconds and has a gain of -0.8, where Tc = T/10 is the chip duration of the DS-SS system we are going to introduce in a moment.
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 The

overall received signal can be written

as

where n(t) is AWGN. To demodulate the received signal, we employ the matched filter receiver, which is matched to the direct line-of-sight signal, i.e., h(t) = pT (T - t).

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78

 We

sample the matched filter output at time t = T. The signal contribution in the sample is 0.36T and the noise contribution is a zeromean Gaussian random variable with variance N0T. Compared to the case where only the direct line-of-sight path is present, the signal energy is reduced by 87%, while the noise energy is the same.

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 Now,

let us spread the spectrum by the spreading signal

where DS-SS system is

Again,

we consider using the matched

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81

 If

we sample at t = T, we get a signal contribution of T, which is the same as what we would get if there was only a single path. Hence, unlike what we saw in the unspread system, multipath fading does not have a detrimental effect on the error probability. In fact, we will show in Chapter 4 that we can do better by taking one more sample

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3.5 References
[1] R. L. Peterson, R. E. Ziemer, and D. E. Borth, Introduction to Spread Spectrum Communications, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1995. [2] M. B. Pursley, Performance evaluation for phase-coded spreadspectrum multiple-access communication Part I: System analysis, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 795799, Aug. 1977. [3] R. A. Scholtz, Multiple access with time-hopping impulse modulation, Proc. MILCOM 93, pp. 11-14, Boston, MA, Oct. 1993. [4] N. Yee, J. M. G. Linnartz, and G. Fettweis, Multi-carrier CDMA in indoor wireless radio networks, IEICE Trans. Commun., vol. E77-B, no. 7, pp. 900904, Jul. 1994. [5] S. Kondo and L. B. Milstein, Performance of multicarrier DS CDMA systems, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 238246, Feb. 1996. [6] R. L. Pickholtz, L. B. Milstein, and D. L. Schilling, Spread spectrum for mobile communications, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 40, no. 83 2, pp. 313321, May 1991.