810

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-25, NO. 8, AUGUST 1977

Spread Spectrum and Time Division Multiple Access

Satellite Communications

Abstract-Although time' division multiple access (TDMA) satellite

communication
provides
the
highest
traffic
capacity
per satellite
and offers efficient,transmission of a wide variety of services; it suffers
from network timing andranging requirements andmessage security.
On the other hand, spread spectrummultipleaccess (SSMA) satellite
communication is suited for reliable random access and tactical transmission systems. Orthogonal functions such as Rademacher, Haar, and
Walsh, or pseudonoise sequence coding of amplitude and phase of the
analog message or code division of baseband signals, frequency and time
hopping are among the several methods employed for spread spectrum
communications. A combination of TDMA and SSMA can be used for
asynchronous and reliable transmissionof digital or analog signals.

I. INTRODUCTION

ATELLITE repeaters provide communication links t o users

separated by large distances, or in inaccessible locations on
sea, land, or in space. The capacity of the satellite link isas
good as the terrestrial linkandthreegeostationary
satellites
can cover most of the earth. Any earth station can listen t o
any signal including its own and it can detect errorsusing error
correcting codes. But the number of channels in the satellite
transponder is limited by the power andbandwidth of the
repeater. These channels (see Figure 1) might be Frequency
Division Muitiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple
Access (TDMA), SpreadSpectrum Multiple Access (SSMA),
or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The multiple
access schemes employ
modulations
which have disjoint
frequency, time, or distinct codes. The various multiple access
modulations have been discussed in [ 11 , [4] , [12] . The
FDMA system is the simplestof
all existingmuitiaccess
systems as it uses onlytraditionalfrequency division multiplexing hardware. The commercial satellites' Intelsat I through
Intelsat V
I and all traffic,controlunits, use FDMA systems
and many military satellites are still FDMA. The disadvantages
of the FDMA systems [ l l ] is thatthe system capacity is
limited by the intermodulation in the satellite repeater. The
satellite repeaterhasa
nonlinear TWT amplifieralong with
other filters.An uplink power control is required t o make
full use of the repeater capacity. The total capacityundergoes
a rapid drop between one and four accesses. In view of these
disadvantages, theIntelsat
V, Canadian domestic satellite
system [7], and USA military systems [2], [8] among others
areswitching t o TDMA systems [3] , [9], [13], [14]. The
SSMA systemhasbeen used exclusively in military systems
under various names such as frequency
hopping
[is],
pseudonoise systems [27] , and jamming systems[29] -[35] .
Manuscript received February 14, 1976;revised March 1, 1977.
The author is with Rockwell International, Downey, CA 90241.

Fig. 1 .

Multiple-accesssatellitecommunications.

Thepurpose
of this paper is to summarize the TDMA
system, t o outline SSMA methods, and to present a hybrid
system, a combination of TDMA and SSMA systems, which
utilizes the efficiencyof
TDMA systems and provides the
message security associated with SSMA systems. The following
section is a brief introduction to TDMA systems. In Section
111, a surveyof SSMA systems is given. Hybridsystemsare
discussed in Section IV. The hybrid systemsneed additional
hardware and rf bandwidth, as discussed in the last section.
11. THE TDMA SYSTEM
in the TDMA system, due to assignment of time frames, a
single signal is present at a time in the satellite repeater. This
eliminates intermodulation
products
within the satellite
transponder. With phase modulated or digitally encoded signals
the TWT amplifier can be operated at saturation without any
powerloss.The
uplink power neednotbecontrolled.The
frequency of signals received is differentfromthat
of the
transmitted signal t o avoid interference.
The
frequency
stability is not critical. The TDMA is ideal for baseband
transmissionsincluding voice anddata transmission. As the
number of users increases, TDMA systems performmuch
bette; than FDMA systems. In TDMA systems analog messages
have t o be digitalized and the messages are t o be transmitted
in bursts which require buffer storage, unique word detection,
and burst synchronization.
TDMA modems are identical wideband burst modems for
all stations. Unique word detection and burst synchronization
have been dealt with for the TDMA system by Schrempp and
Sekimoto [5] and Gabbard [6]. Each earth station consists of
three major subsystems:

MOHANTY: SPREAD SPECTRUM AND TIME DIVISION

1) PCM Coder
2) Control Subsystem and
3) PSK Modem.
The control system is the central part of the TDMA system.
The burst length is the length of a single uninterrupted transmission from an earth station, a frame contains a burst from
each accessing station, and guard time is the time between the
end of one burst and the
beginning of the next burst. Each
stationburst has a formatmadeup
of preamblebits and
information bits. The preamble has the following functions:
1) It contains a sufficient number of bits for recovery of a
coherent carrier andbit timing forthedemodulation(for
example PSK). This has to be doneindependentlyfor each
burst since it may not be possible to have coherency of carrier
phase and bit timing between transmitting stations.
2) It containsa
sufficient numberof
bits of unique
words that are used forstation
addressing and wordand
burst synchronization. The guard time is provided between
bursts to prevent interference due to overlapping or defective
equalization.
A typical PCM coder has the following characteristics:
modulation
number of channels
sampling frequency
clock frequency
sampling interval

pulse code
24
8000 samples/s/channel
1.544 MHz
7 bits for voice plus 1 bit for signaling

The PSK modulator-demodulator may have the following

features:
modulation
demodulation
IF frequency
frequency stability
carrier recovery
phase ambiguity removal
operating bit rate

two phase PSK

coherent
70 MHz
per day
1000 /ls
differential bit coding
6.176 Mbits/s

The structure of a typicalpreamblehas

the following
patterns: regular pattern for 30 symbols (60 bits) for carrier
phase and bitclockrecovery; a unique word of 10 symbols
(20 bits), which is used with a correlation detector,to generate
atime signal at thetenthsymbolfrom
which word-length
timing for the rest of the burst is reckoned; four symbols (8
bits), consisting of a six bit station identification signal, plus
two bits used for supervisory signals, to control the activity
of standby reference stations; and a sequence of symbols to
provide service circuits and various housekeeping signaling
functions. Thecalculation of the channel capacity operating
through a satellite transponder can be related to link rate R.

R = min (R,, R,)

R, = (EIRP -PI + G/T - K ) - (E,/No + M i ) - M,
R, = W-0-C,
where
R,

R,

bitrate in the powerlimited case inbits/s

bit rate in the bandwidth limited case inbits/s

81 1
isotropically
radiated
power
of
the
EIRP equivalent
satellite transponder (dBW)
path loss at the downlink frequency (dB)
Pl
receiving terminal
G/T gain temperatureratioforthe
(dB/K)
Boltzmanns constant
K
E,/N,, the ratio of the energy per transmitted information
bittothe
noise powerdensity
withbiterrorr
probability (Pe) (dB)
M i implementation margin of the
modem,
including
filter losses, intersymbol
interference,
AM/PM
conversion from the satellite (dB)
M,
system
margin,
primarily
due
to
rain,
satellite
motion, off axis antenna point (dB)
W
3 dB bandwidth of thetransponder (dB Hz)
0
number of bits per transmitted
symbol
(0 = 10
log 3 for eight phase PSK) (dB bits)
C,
theratio of satellite transponderbandwidth tothe
symbol rate possible through that bandwidth (dB).
The maximum number of channel that can share the satellite
can be determined from R/Rc,where R , = channel rate.
In the Defense Satellite CommunicationsSystem, frame
rate for TDMAis fixed at 1200 Hz. Thetime base at each
terminal is synchronized to that of the master terminal. The
guard band varies from 0 to 100 ns. The signals are translated
in frequencyandthenretransmittted
totheearthterminal.
The system is power limited in the down link, and G/T of the
earth receivers are more than 12 dB. Burst rates range between
1.2288 and 78.6432 Mbit/s. Convolutional coding is used for
forward error correction, the modulation
isQPSK type, and
signaling rates range between 1.2288 and 78.6432 MHz. The
range between earth terminal and satellite is over 23,000
miles. The terrestrial subsystem consists of
1) earth terminal complex (ET)
2) an interconnect facility (ICF)
3) a technical control facility (TCF).
The TCF contains Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) multiplex
and asynchronous time division multiplex units. The objective
of ET is to provide synchronization timing, control, buffer,
modulateanddemodulatecodeand
decodewhen necessary
and to provideDoppler correction. Thebuffer is interfacing
storage devices which are unique to TDMA systems. The most
efficient buffer would have a capacityequal to the terminal
aggregate receive rate divided by the frame rate. The memory
read/write clocks are bounded by the highest burstrate
78.6432 MHz, and frame rate 1200 Hz. Data are temporarily
stored in memory elements and data for any channel can be
assigned to a continuous memory block on a first come first
served basis or on a priority basis. The memory block length is
determined by the I/O capabilities,random access, and shift
register. The Random Access Memory supports
memory
blocks of arbitrary size. The Monitor, Alarm, andControl
Systemdetermines theoperation flexibility and availability.
This monitors
1) error correction
2) QPSK type modulation

812

TRANSACTIONS
IEEE

ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-25, NO. 8 , AUGUST 1977

3) IF and carrier frequency

4) baseband interference
5) burst rate and lengthincluding preamble.
In spite of all these complexities, mostof the futuresatellite
systems would be TDMA systems.

The SSMA systems have been successfully implemented in

various defense projects and experiments.One of the successful
SSMA systems is ATS-1. Thesystemparameters
used for
ATS-1 satellite are given below:
MODULATOR

111. SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS (SSMA)

operating frequency
reference frequency stability
input signal

70 MHz
1 X 10F9/Hz
voice: 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz BW
FSK data: 100 bands
FM with
3.4
kHz
to
12 kHz
peak
frequency deviation
maximal length (PN)
16.376 MHz
204 I
phase reversal

It is known from signal detectiontheorythatfor

binary
transmission of known signals in the presence of Gaussian
primary
modulation
noise, theerrorprobability
dependsonly onthe signal bit
code type
energy and noise spectral density. Spreading the bandwidth of
code clock rate
the signals will not degrade the performance of the dete-t'
i.. ion
code length
as long as the recovered energy of the signal remains the same
PN carrier modulation
as the original signal. Thisspreading of thebandwidth will
DEMODULATOR
require spreading aswell of the rf bandwidth and hence the
capacity of a fixed bandwidth channel is reduced. One of the
operating frequency
70 MHz
purposes of spreading the signal is to make it look likea white
message demodulator
FM discriminator
correlator
Gaussian noise. The spreading of the signal is done by some
phase reversal
cross correlation tracking
delay lock discriminator
operation on the signal using codes whose properties are close
sweep by clock frequency offset
acquisition
to a white noise. For detection, itis essential to have the exact
up to 500 Hz
measuring range
inverse operation with the same code stored at the receiver.
time accuracy
1 x 10-8 s
If codes can be found whose cross correlations approach zero
reading digits
8 digits
and whose autocorrelations are the energy of the signals,
sampling rate
about 1 sample/s
distinct multiple signals can be generated.The receiver can
detect the desired signal while rejecting all other signals which
The problem of synchronization with PN sequences (direct
donotmatchthecodepattern.
This modulation scheme is
sequence)spread spectrum is reduced in frequencyhopping
sometimes called therandom access code division multiple
(FH) spread spectrum where the frequency of the transmitted
access syster .. Thekeyproblems
in the SSMA are to find
signal stays on a specific frequency for an interval and hops to
optimalcodes, devices to generate those codes, modulators another frequency selected pseudorandomly. Some features of
which transformthe messages totheencrypted
messages,
the PN sequence modulations and frequency hopping
are as
and also matched filters to demodulate the encryptedmessages.
follows:
Pseudonoisesequences
(PN), also called maximumlength
sequences [16] -[21] , have been used forspreadspectrum
CHARACTERISTIC
PN
FREQUENCY
HOPPING
purposes because of their desirable correlation properties.
although
They are easily implementable with present integratedcircuits. Antijam performance similar,
different threats
Otherimportant sequences with excellent cross correlation
are optimum
similar
properties are Rademacher and Walsh [ 3 6 ] . The spreading of Detection
Access
theinformationon
an rf carrier is done bybaseband PN Multiple
(with time division)
spreading, frequency hopping, time hopping, ora combination
20 dB
Near margin
60 dB
3 X uncertainty X 10 data.bits to prevent
of these methods. The direct spreading of the information is Sync time
processing
gain
false
clock
doneeitherbymodulatingthe
phase oramplitudecorreLong code
sponding to the coded signal. Frequency hopping can be done
serial search
several
seconds
milliseconds
Matched filter
same as frequency
by using coherent, continuous, yet random, Frequency-Shift
correlator
hopping
Keying (FSK) transmission. Extremely low frequency FSK are
used forelectroniccounter
measure operations [30], [32].
The major requirement in FH systems is the need for a fast
The voice signal fromthe. voice switch is fed to an FM
settling time, which permits a rapid hopping to accommodate
modulatorand
a spreadspectrummodulator
changes the
high data rates with little off time. Error correction coding is
frequency, controlled by a PN code, spreading the voice signal
extremely important with FH
M-ary FSK.Reed-Solomon codes
to a wideband signal. An inverse operation is done to extract
are usually used for this purpose. Consider a single pseudothe voice and is sent totheappropriatedestination.The
randomfrequencyhopping
signal y ( t ) confined to a wide
advantages of SSMA are:
bandwidth B. This signal is a continuous chain of equal ampli1) it does not need any timing coordination;
tude and equal duration R F pulses. If this RF signal remains
2) it has simultaneous random access;
at each frequency fk for a duration T seconds, then
3) more importantly, repeater bandwidth
of asatellite is
utilized efficiently and noguard bands are inserted; and
4) it provides simultaneous ranging withtelephonecommunication.

813

MOHANTY: SPREAD SPECTRUM AND TIME DIVISION

where P is the average power of the normalized y ( t ) and

rectQ=l,
= 0,

And
fk

-1/2SQ<l/2

= phase of the Kth pulse frequency,

=f c k

elsewhere.

II

+ Afk

I . '

where f c h is the hopped carrier frequency of the kth pulse and

A f k is the frequencyshift due to dataof the kth pulse. Another
important attribute of the FH system is its inherent multiple
access capability due to the frequency slot hop. No more than
one signal occupies a particular slot for a given time. Unlike
PNsequences, signals are at differentfrequencies at a given
time, and are a random access version of the FDMA system.
Whereas in thePN sequence(directsequence)
the phase
was coded, in frequency hopping, the frequencies are coded
(random). When the data are stored in bursts the transmission
of bursts is done in coded time. The slot in which the transmitted pulse occurs is selected by a code generator. The data
bits within a frame are stored for a transmission at high speed
at selected time intervalsandthis
information is known
a priori at the receiver. The timehopping system (TH) not
only scatters the timing information but utilizes the slots of
the idle users.

TIMING

"(t)

SATELLITE

GIIUSSII\II

R W D O M TDMA
DEMODULATOR
TIME GATING

SATELLITE OUTPUT

I TDMA DEMOD I
Fig. 2.

Spread spectrum random time division multiple access system.

IV. THE HYBRID SYSTEM

is presentatatime
in the satellite, thetransponder can be
In this section, the hybrid bystem, a combination of SSMA
operated in saturation yielding maximum power output. The
and TDMA, is discussed. The messages are sentthrougha
output signal e(t) fromthe satellite is received attheearth
SSMA modulator, where messages are coded, encrypted, added
station.It is required thatthe spread spectrummodulator
or correlated to another signal such that messages acquire a
has a prioriknowledge of the time hopping sequencewhich
larger bandwidth.The codeswhichgenerate
theencrypted
will be used to process the encrypted message. In the SSMA
messages are of equal length, energy and distinct. The encrypted
demodulator, an inverse operation is done to extractthe
messages are sent to the satellite using TDMA. Thesatellite
modulated message. The modulated messageis obtainedby
retransmits the signal back to the earth. The received signal is
adding thestoredcode
b i ( l ) ( t ) .The output of the SSMA
processed throughabank of spread spectrumdemodulators
demodulator is rni(t), because
where theexact replica of thecode is storedtomakethe
inverse operation toextractthe
message. Theencrypted
b i ( l ) ( t )+ b i ( l ) ( t )= o
Vi,
message is processed through the TDMA demodulator.
These codes may be binary [37], [38], polyphase [39] or
(i) Let rni(t) be the message of the ith channel or earth
Walsh or Rademacher functions [36]. Although PN sequences
station.Acode
word b i ( l ) ( t ) is added yielding aoutput
have been widely used for SSMA and code division multiple
ci(t) (see Figure 2),
access systems, Walsh functions have better cross correlation
than PN sequences.
Ci(t)= rni(t)+ b i ( l ) ,
1 <i S M ,
The output of the SSMA demodulator is passed through
message
where rni(t) = 2&1 rn:(t)
is jth message of ith channel the TDMA demodulator toextractthetransmitted
1 < j < n), where M is the total numberof users, and channels andit is further demultiplexed to get individual messages.
This hybrid system used direct and time hopping spread
or earth stations. Ci(t), 1 < i < M, are transmitted through
spectrum methods.
TDMA to the satellite at random times, oneatatime.The
(ii) The hybrid system may use as well frequency hopping
random timesequence
is knowna priori to all theearth
spread spectrum to ensureantijammingcapability
of the
stations. The modulated signal
TDMA system.The
TDMA burst are frequencyhopped,
M
frequencies are generated bycode
sequences. Theoutput
d(t) =
Ci(t)&(t - ti),
of
the
TDMA
is
multiplied
with
a
spread
spectrum signal.
ti'l
Theresultant signal is transmittedthroughthe
satellite. In
where ti,i 2 0 are random time epochs. Since only one signal this case themodulated message rni(t), i 2 1 is multiplied

(rn:

814

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-25, NO. 8, AUGUST 1977

with a spread spectrum signal bi(2)(t),i 2 1 with a property

that
.
bi(2)(t)bj(2)(t) =

1,

=0,

i=j

i#j.

The satellite repeater responds to all the hoppingfrequencies.

It is necessary that only one signal be present in the transponder corresponding to theparticular frequency. This enables
operation of the satellite with its maximum power output. The
number of hopping frequencies determinesthenumber
of
TDMA bursts. At the receiver, the signal is fed to a SSMA
demodulator, which is a correlator, to extract the modulated
message andthemodulated
messages are demodulated in a
conventional TDMA demodulator.
The
spread spectrum
demodulator provides the necessary timing and ranging
information to the TDMA demodulator.The satellitetransponder should have filters correspondingto
all hopping
frequencies.
(iii) The first hybrid system provides the message privacy
andthesecond
one
ensures
antijamming
capability.The
combination of these methods, i.e., direct spread, frequency
hoppingandtimehopping,
provides secure, reliable and
efficient systems. The message mi(t) of the channel is passed
througha
spread spectrummodulator, where the mi(t) is
added to the coded message b i ( l ) ( t )and then passed through
a second SSMA modulator, where ( b i ( l ) ( t ) mi(t))is multiplied
by
The
output TDMA signal burst

d(t) =

(bi'l'(t)

+mi(t))bp)(t)qt

ti)

ti'l

hops as coded frequencies at random time ti, i 2 1. The hybrid

signal is amplified in the satellite and is transmitted back to
theearth.The
received signal is correlated with an exact
replica of bi(2)(t),i 2 1, and is then passed through the second
SSMA demodulator, where b i ( l ) ( t ) ,i Z 1, is added to get the
modulated message. In all the above hybrid systems, the
received signal is the sum of hybrid TDMA bursts,andthe
receiver noise is the sum of gaussian noise and the interfering
signal, if any.The SSMA techniquestreatstheinterfering
signals as additional noise in addition to the othernoise.
V. DISCUSSION
The combination of TDMA and SSMA systems permits the
presence of only one signal at any time in any transponder, as
in the case of TDMA systems, and at the same time a casual
listener of this broadcasting system is denied the meaning of
the message because the signal is encrypted and hopping in a
randommanner in timeandfrequency. This secure, reliable
and efficienttransmissionsystem
is obtainedatthe
cost
of extended rf bandwidth.Themodified
TDMA systems
incorporating SSMA capability
creates
complex signal
processing problemsboth at the satellite andearthstation.
With advancement of microprocessing andmicrocomputers,
processing the coded signals in the satellite is within the state
of the art. The generation of the codes to spread or despread

the message and correlator and matched filters associated with

the SSMA systems are now not significant extra burdens to
the TDMA system withthe advent of charge coupled and
acoustic surface wave devices [22]. Variousaspects of the
SSMA system and its ramifications are given in [ 1.51 - [39] and
the most important aspects of TDMAare discussed in [ 13 - [ 141 .
The hybird system provices data security to the commercial
satellites and antijamming capability to the military satellites.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thankDr. Arlin Torbet of Systems
Control, Inc., Palo Alto, California, and Dr. Lloyd Krause and
Mr. R. H. Lenke of Rockwell International for their help and
suggestions in preparation of this paper.
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Nirode C. Mohanty (S71-M73) was born in
183-219.
Orissa, India. He received an M.S. in MathemaRichardson, R. J., OptimumTransponderDesignforPseudo
tics, and,M.S.E.E., anda Ph.D.inElectrical
Noise-Coded Ranging Systems,Weak Signals. IEEE Trans. AeroEngineering fromthe University ofSouthern
space Electron Syst., VAES 8, No. 1, January 1972, pp. 68-72.
California, Los Angeles, California.
Lefande, R. A. EffectsofPhaseNonlinearitiesonPhaseShift
Dr. Mohanty was a research scholar and AsKeyed Pseudo Noise/Spread Spectrum Communication Systems.
, ;.
sistantandPost-DoctoralResearchAssociate
at
IEEE Trans. Commun. Technol., V COM 18, No. 5 , October
the Universityof Southern California. He has
1970, pp. 6 8 5 6 8 6 .
served as afacultymember
at the Utkal UniRichter, S . L., Envelope Threshold Detection in a Class of Nonversity, Bhubaneswar, India, and the State UniGaussianInterference. IEEE Trans. Aerospace Electron. Syst.,
versityof New York at Buffalo, New York,
V AES 11, No. 1, January 1975, pp. 77-85.
where hetaught coursesonRandomProcesses,CommunicationSysRass, G. N., Digital Control of Active Jamming Systems. IEEE
tems,DigitalCommunications,andDiscreteTimeSystems.Dr.
Mo1974 for Meet, Dayton,
Proc. Natl.AerospaceElectronConf.,
hantys association with industry includes work with Systems Control,
Ohio.
Inc.,PaloAlto,California,inSignalProcessing,TransmissionLine
Budiansky, J. H., Phased Arrays Next for
ECM. Microwaves, V.
Monitoring, and Satellite Communications. He is currently a Member of
12, No. 10, October 1973, pp. 56, 58-59.
the Technical Staff at Rockwell International Corporation, Space DiviGrasse, C. L., Gandolfo,
D. A., Acoustics Improve Accuracy of
sion, Downey, California, in the Engineering Department, CommunicaEW Jammer. Microwaves, V. 12, No. 5 , May 1973, pp. 52-53,
tion Systems.
54-56.
Professional associations with which Dr. Mohanty has been affiliated
Mullerr, J. A.,ElectronicCountermeasuresProblemforExtremelyLowFrequencycommunications.
IEEE Trans. Com- include Eta Kappa,Nu,Pi Mu Epsilon, Sigma Xi, and SIAM. In addition,
heservedas
the ChairmanoftheIEEEInformationTheoryGroup,
mun.. V COM-22. No. 4 , April 1973,. PP.
_ _496-503.
[33] Tewari, R. K., Bhagirath;,
R.
E.,
Jamming
Vulnerability
of
Buffalo
Section.
. 11
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Low-Rate Convolutional Code Applications in

Spread-Spectrum Communications

Absfroct-Low-rate convolutional codes are useful as an interference

mitigation technique in frequency-hopped spread-spectrum systems. In
this paper we show how good low-rate convolutional codes can readily
be constructed from higher-rate codes that are known to exhibit good
performance. The performance of low-rate convolutional codes is established theoretically and through
the use of computer simulation and
hardware experimentation. Typical performance curves are shown for
Manuscript received February 9, 1976;revised March 23, 1977.
The author is with ESL Incorporated, Sunnyvale,CA 94086.

convolutional codes with rates between 1/64 and 1/2, both in additive
of code rate,
white Gaussian noise and in burst,interference. The impact
constraint length, burst length,interleaving and modulationon total system performance are discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

RROR-correction codes can improve the performance of

digital communication systems by lowering the required