Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum Receiver for Communication on Frequency-Selective Fading Channels

The reception of direct-sequence spread-spectrum signals on frequency-selective fading communication channels is considered. The fading statistics are described using the wide-sense-stationary uncorrelated-scattering (WSSUS) channel model. It is shown that, under certain assumptions about this channel such as time-invariance over the duration of a data symbol, an orthogonal representation for the received distorted signal can be found. The optimum incoherent receiver can then be realized with reasonable complexity. The analysis shows that exploiting the inherent diversity of a frequency-selective channel can reduce the receiver error probability by several orders of magnitude. The optimum selective channel and the jamming susceptibility of the receiver are discussed.