Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method

utilized by various radio communication technologies. It should not be

confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne and
CDMA2000 (which are often referred to as simply "CDMA"), that use
CDMA as their underlying channel access methods.
One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing
several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single
communication channel. This allows several users to share a bandwidth
of frequencies. This concept is called multiplexing. CDMA employs
spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each
transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed
over the same physical channel. By contrast, time division multiple
access (TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division
multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency. CDMA is a form of
"spread-spectrum" signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a
much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated.

An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room (channel) in

which people wish to communicate with each other. To avoid confusion,
people could take turns speaking (time division), speak at different
pitches (frequency division), or speak in different languages (code
division). CDMA is analogous to the last example where people
speaking the same language can understand each other, but not other
people. Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of users is given a shared
code. Many codes occupy the same channel, but only users associated
with a particular code can understand each other.
CDMA is a spread spectrum multiple access technique. In CDMA a
locally generated code runs at a much higher rate than the data to be
transmitted. Data for transmission is simply logically XOR (exclusive
OR) added with the faster code. The figure shows how spread spectrum
signal is generated. The data signal with pulse duration of Tb is XOR
added with the code signal with pulse duration of Tc. (Note: bandwidth
is proportional to 1 / T where T = bit time) Therefore, the bandwidth of
the data signal is 1 / Tb and the bandwidth of the spread spectrum signal
is 1 / Tc. Since Tc is much smaller than Tb, the bandwidth of the spread
spectrum signal is much larger than the bandwidth of the original signal.

CDMA uses Direct Sequence spreading, where spreading process is

done by directly combining the baseband information to high chip rate
binary code. The Spreading Factor is the ratio of the chips (UMTS =
3.84Mchips/s) to baseband information rate. Spreading factors vary from
4 to 512 in FDD UMTS. Spreading process gain can in expressed in dBs
(Spreading factor 128 = 21dB gain).

Ea
ch user in a CDMA system uses a different code to modulate their
signal. Choosing the codes used to modulate the signal is very important
in the performance of CDMA systems. The best performance will occur
when there is good separation between the signal of a desired user and
the signals of other users. The separation of the signals is made by
correlating the received signal with the locally generated code of the
desired user. If the signal matches the desired user's code then the
correlation function will be high and the system can extract that signal.
If the desired user's code has nothing in common with the signal the
correlation should be as close to zero as possible (thus eliminating the
signal); this is referred to as cross correlation. If the code is correlated
with the signal at any time offset other than zero, the correlation should
be as close to zero as possible. This is referred to as auto-correlation and
 [2]
is used to reject multi-path interference.

In general, CDMA belongs to two basic categories: synchronous

(orthogonal codes) and asynchronous (pseudorandom codes Code
Division Multiplexing (Synchronous CDMA)
Synchronous CDMA
Synchronous CDMA exploits mathematical properties of orthogonality
between vectors representing the data strings. For example, binary string
"1011" is represented by the vector (1, 0, 1, 1). Vectors can be
multiplied by taking their dot product, by summing the products of their
respective components. If the dot product is zero, the two vectors are
said to be orthogonal to each other. (Note: If u=(a,b) and v=(c,d), the dot
product u.v = a*c + b*d) Some properties of the dot product help to
understand how W-CDMA works. If vectors a and b are orthogonal,
then

Each user in synchronous CDMA uses an orthogonal codes to modulate

their signal. An example of four mutually orthogonal digital signals is
shown in the figure. Orthogonal codes have a cross-correlation equal to
zero; in other words, they do not interfere with each other. In the case of
IS-95 64 bit Walsh codes are used to encode the signal to separate
different users. Since each of the 64 Walsh codes are orthogonal to one
another, the signals are channelized into 64 orthogonal signals. The
following example demonstrates how each users signal can be encoded
and decoded.

Example

Start with a set of vectors that are mutually orthogonal. (Although

mutual orthogonality is the only condition, these vectors are usually
constructed for ease of decoding, for example columns or rows from
Walsh matrices.) An example of orthogonal functions is shown in the
picture on the left. These vectors will be assigned to individual users and
are called the "code", "chipping code" or "chip code". In the interest of
brevity, the rest of this example uses codes (v) with only 2 digits.
An example of four mutually orthogonal digital signals.

Each user is associated with a different code, say v. If the data to be

transmitted is a digital zero, then the actual bits transmitted will be –v,
and if the data to be transmitted is a digital one, then the actual bits
transmitted will be v. For example, if v=(1,–1), and the data that the user
wishes to transmit is (1, 0, 1, 1) this would correspond to (v, –v, v, v)
which is then constructed in binary as ((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,–1),(1,–1)). For
the purposes of this article, we call this constructed vector the
transmitted vector.

Each sender has a different, unique vector v chosen from that set, but the
construction method of the transmitted vector is identical.

Now, due to physical properties of interference, if two signals at a point

are in phase, they add to give twice the amplitude of each signal, but if
they are out of phase, they "subtract" and give a signal that is the
difference of the amplitudes. Digitally, this behaviour can be modelled
by the addition of the transmission vectors, component by component.
If sender0 has code (1,–1) and data (1,0,1,1), and sender1 has code (1,1)
and data (0,0,1,1), and both senders transmit simultaneously, then this
table describes the coding steps:

Step Encode sender0 Encode sender1

vector0=(1,–1), vector1=(1,1), data1=(0,0,1,1)=(–
0
data0=(1,0,1,1)=(1,–1,1,1) 1,–1,1,1)
1 encode0=vector0.data0 encode1=vector1.data1
2 encode0=(1,–1).(1,–1,1,1) encode1=(1,1).(–1,–1,1,1)
encode0=((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,– encode1=((–1,–1),(–1,–
3
1),(1,–1)) 1),(1,1),(1,1))
4 signal0=(1,–1,–1,1,1,–1,1,–1) signal1=(–1,–1,–1,–1,1,1,1,1)

Because signal0 and signal1 are transmitted at the same time into the air,
they add to produce the raw signal:
(1,–1,–1,1,1,–1,1,–1) + (–1,–1,–1,–1,1,1,1,1) = (0,–2,–2,0,2,0,2,0)

This raw signal is called an interference pattern. The receiver then

extracts an intelligible signal for any known sender by combining the
sender's code with the interference pattern, the receiver combines it with
the codes of the senders. The following table explains how this works
and shows that the signals do not interfer with one another:

Step Decode sender0 Decode sender1

vector0=(1,–1), pattern=(0,–2,– vector1=(1,1), pattern=(0,–2,–
0
2,0,2,0,2,0) 2,0,2,0,2,0)
1 decode0=pattern.vector0 decode1=pattern.vector1
decode0=((0,–2),(– decode1=((0,–2),(–
2
2,0),(2,0),(2,0)).(1,–1) 2,0),(2,0),(2,0)).(1,1)
decode0=((0+2),(– decode1=((0–2),(–
3
2+0),(2+0),(2+0)) 2+0),(2+0),(2+0))
4 data0=(2,–2,2,2)=(1,0,1,1) data1=(–2,–2,2,2)=(0,0,1,1)
Further, after decoding, all values greater than 0 are interpreted as 1
while all values less than zero are interpreted as 0. For example, after
decoding, data0 is (2,–2,2,2), but the receiver interprets this as (1,0,1,1).

We can also consider what would happen if a receiver tries to decode a

signal when the user has not sent any information. Assume signal0=(1,-
1,-1,1,1,-1,1,-1) is transmitted alone. The following table shows the
decode at the receiver:

Step Decode sender0 Decode sender1

vector0=(1,–1), pattern=(1,-1,- vector1=(1,1), pattern=(1,-1,-
0
1,1,1,-1,1,-1) 1,1,1,-1,1,-1)
1 decode0=pattern.vector0 decode1=pattern.vector1
decode0=((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,-1),(1,- decode1=((1,–1),(–1,1),(1,-
2
1)).(1,–1) 1),(1,-1)).(1,1)
decode0=((1+1),(–1- decode1=((1–1),(–1+1),(1-1),(1-
3
1),(1+1),(1+1)) 1))
4 data0=(2,–2,2,2)=(1,0,1,1) data1=(0,0,0,0)

When the receiver attempts to decode the signal using sender1’s code,
the data is all zeros, therefore the cross correlation is equal to zero and it
is clear that sender1 did not transmit any data.
Asynchronous CDMA

The previous example of orthogonal Walsh sequences describes how 2

users can be multiplexed together in a synchronous system, a technique
that is commonly referred to as Code Division Multiplexing (CDM). The
set of 4 Walsh sequences shown in the figure will afford up to 4 users,
and in general, an NxN Walsh matrix can be used to multiplex N users.
Multiplexing requires all of the users to be coordinated so that each
transmits their assigned sequence v (or the complement, -v) starting at
exactly the same time. Thus, this technique finds use in base-to-mobile
links, where all of the transmissions originate from the same transmitter
and can be perfectly coordinated.

On the other hand, the mobile-to-base links cannot be precisely

coordinated, particularly due to the mobility of the handsets, and require
a somewhat different approach. Since it is not mathematically possible
to create signature sequences that are orthogonal for arbitrarily random
starting points, unique "pseudo-random" or "pseudo-noise" (PN)
sequences are used in Asynchronous CDMA systems. A PN code is a
binary sequence that appears random but can be reproduced in a
deterministic manner by intended receivers. These PN codes are used to
encode and decode a users signal in Asynchronous CDMA in the same
manner as the orthogonal codes in synchrous CDMA (shown in the
example above). These PN sequences are statistically uncorrelated, and
the sum of a large number of PN sequences results in Multiple Access
Interference (MAI) that is approximated by a Gaussian noise process
(following the "central limit theorem" in statistics). If all of the users are
received with the same power level, then the variance (e.g., the noise
power) of the MAI increases in direct proportion to the number of users.
In other words, unlike synchronous CDMA, the signals of other users
will appear as noise to the signal of interest and interfere slightly with
the desired signal in proportion to number of users.
All forms of CDMA use spread spectrum process gain to allow receivers
to partially discriminate against unwanted signals. Signals encoded with
the specified PN sequence (code) are received, while signals with
different codes (or the same code but a different timing offset) appear as
wideband noise reduced by the process gain.

Since each user generates MAI, controlling the signal strength is an

important issue with CDMA transmitters. A CDM (Synchronous
CDMA), TDMA or FDMA receiver can in theory completely reject
arbitrarily strong signals using different codes, time slots or frequency
channels due to the orthogonality of these systems. This is not true for
Asynchronous CDMA; rejection of unwanted signals is only partial. If
any or all of the unwanted signals are much stronger than the desired
signal, they will overwhelm it. This leads to a general requirement in
any Asynchronous CDMA system to approximately match the various
signal power levels as seen at the receiver. In CDMA cellular, the base
station uses a fast closed-loop power control scheme to tightly control
each mobile's transmit power. See Near-far problem for further
information on this problem.
Advantages of Asynchronous CDMA over other
techniques

Asynchronous CDMA's main advantage over CDM (Synchronous

CDMA), TDMA and FDMA is that it can use the spectrum more
efficiently in mobile telephony applications. (In theory, CDMA, TDMA
and FDMA have exactly the same spectral efficiency but practically,
each has its own challenges - power control in the case of CDMA,
timing in the case of TDMA, and frequency generation/filtering in the
case of FDMA.) TDMA systems must carefully synchronize the
transmission times of all the users to ensure that they are received in the
correct timeslot and do not cause interference. Since this cannot be
perfectly controlled in a mobile environment, each timeslot must have a
guard-time, which reduces the probability that users will interfere, but
decreases the spectral efficiency. Similarly, FDMA systems must use a
guard-band between adjacent channels, due to the random doppler shift
of the signal spectrum which occurs due to the user's mobility. The
guard-bands will reduce the probability that adjacent channels will
interfere, but decrease the utilization of the spectrum.

Most importantly, Asynchronous CDMA offers a key advantage in the

flexible allocation of resources. There are a fixed number of orthogonal
codes, timeslots or frequency bands that can be allocated for CDM,
TDMA and FDMA systems, which remain underutilized due to the
bursty nature of telephony and packetized data transmissions. There is
no strict limit to the number of users that can be supported in an
Asynchronous CDMA system, only a practical limit governed by the
desired bit error probability, since the SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio)
varies inversely with the number of users. In a bursty traffic
environment like mobile telephony, the advantage afforded by
Asynchronous CDMA is that the performance (bit error rate) is allowed

to fluctuate randomly, with an average value determined by the number

of users times the percentage of utilization. Suppose there are 2N users
that only talk half of the time, then 2N users can be accommodated with
the same average bit error probability as N users that talk all of the time.
The key difference here is that the bit error probability for N users
talking all of the time is constant, whereas it is a random quantity (with
the same mean) for 2N users talking half of the time.

In other words, Asynchronous CDMA is ideally suited to a mobile

network where large numbers of transmitters each generate a relatively
small amount of traffic at irregular intervals. CDM (Synchronous
CDMA), TDMA and FDMA systems cannot recover the underutilized
resources inherent to bursty traffic due to the fixed number of orthogonal
codes, time slots or frequency channels that can be assigned to
individual transmitters. For instance, if there are N time slots in a
TDMA system and 2N users that talk half of the time, then half of the
time there will be more than N users needing to use more than N
timeslots. Furthermore, it would require significant overhead to
continually allocate and deallocate the orthogonal code, time-slot or
frequency channel resources. By comparison, Asynchronous CDMA
transmitters simply send when they have something to say, and go off
the air when they don't, keeping the same PN signature sequence as long
as they are connected to the system.