Comparison of the sensitivities of MC-CDMA and MC-DS-CDMA to carrier frequency offset

Abstract

We consider the effect of carrier frequency offset on the performance of MC-CDMA and MC-DS-CDMA, which are both combinations of the multicarrier transmission technique and the CDMA multiple access technique. We show that both systems strongly degrade in the presence of a carrier frequency offset. Furthermore, we show that, for a given spreading factor, the MC-DS-CDMA system is less (more) sensitive to carrier frequency offset than MC-CDMA when the number of modulated carriers in the former system is smaller (larger) than the spreading factor.