Performance evaluation of quasi-synchronous code division multiple access (QS-CDMA) for satellite mobile systems

The authors discuss and analyze the performance of a quasi-synchronous code-division multiple-access (QS-CDMA) mobile satellite communication system. Practical network synchronization schemes cannot guarantee perfect carrier frequency and code timing alignment. Therefore, bit error rate (BER) impairment due to frequency and chip timing errors is evaluated. Theoretical results on QS-CDMA performance are confirmed by a time-domain system computer simulation. In particular, QS-CDMA sensitivity to combined frequency/timing errors is addressed. The suitability of Gold codes for the proposed QS-CDMA mobile satellite network has been demonstrated.<<ETX>>