MULTIPATH-FADING EFFECTS ON WIDE-BAND DS CDMA SIGNALS - ANALYSIS, SIMULATION, AND MEASUREMENTS/

Transmitting signals over multipath fading channels causes distortions and variations at the receiver. For narrow-band signals, the envelope of the received signal is well characterized by a Rayleigh random pro cess. Rayleigh fading causes large variations in the signal envelope. For wide-band signals, the effect of Rayleigh fading is mitigated. Thi s paper considers the effect of receiver processing on the mitigation effect for wide-band DS/CDMA signals. The mitigation effect is shown h ere by a reduction of the coefficient of variation of the received pow er as a function of bandwidth spreading. The parameters chip rate, pro cessing gain, and the number of multipath components tracked are inves tigated for their effect upon the mitigation-the mitigation effect is sensitive to combinations of these parameters.