Performance of unequalized frequency-hopped TDMA with convolutional coding on dispersive fading channels

Increasing demand for wireless personal communications has stimulated research on new digital radio technologies that are optimized for various service applications and environments. This paper discusses the performance of a slow-frequency-hopped time-division multiple-access (SFH-TDMA) technique, which has been proposed as a “high-tier” extension of a low-complexity TDMA architecture optimized for low-power pedestrian applications. The SFH-TDMA technique considered uses QPSK modulation and rate-1/2 convolutional coding. Numerical results for a wide range of fading rates are obtained through analytical calculation of the effective signal-to-noise ratio combined with a simulation approach which incorporates measured multipath channels and actual frequency correlation among contiguous hopping channels. The results indicate that the SFH-TDMA technique can tolerate root-mean-square (rms) delay spread up to several bit periods without a need for adaptive equalization, but also point to the need for fast power control when the fading is slow and the rms delay spread is much smaller than the bit period. This work is targeted toward understanding the implications to local exchange networks of wireless technology alternatives that could provide access to those networks.