ECE 5660 - Spread Spectrum Communications (3C)

Major topics include: direct sequence and frequency hopping methods, synchronization, resistance to jamming to jamming, low probability of detection, spreading codes and their generation, system performance, Rake receivers, Code Division Multiple Access, cellular CDMA applications, wireless LAN applications, as well as commercial and military applications.

Spread spectrum communications is a core technology for wireless systems. Future cellular systems are virtually all being designed using spread spectrum techniques. A large number of wireless LAN products are being designed using spread spectrum. Many military systems use spread spectrum. In fact the techniques were originally a military application only. In short, wireless communication engineers will almost certainly work on spread spectrum systems during their career. Since the design methods for spread spectrum and the principles behind them are significantly different from other communication systems, it is important to devote a course to the topic. Currently, spread spectrum is treated in a sporadic fashion in a few courses. Digital communications (ECE 5654) spends two weeks on the topic. A couple of other courses give a lecture or two, but even if a student were exposed to all of them, they would not have sufficient understanding of spread spectrum.