Performance comparison of FFH and MCFH spread-spectrum systems with optimum diversity combining in frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels

In this letter, the performance of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum systems employing noncoherent reception and transmission diversity is analyzed for frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. Two different types of transmission diversity systems, a fast frequency-hopping (FFH) system and a multicarrier frequency-hopping (MCFH) system, are investigated. In order to combine received signals from transmit diversity channels, the optimum diversity combining rule based on the maximum-likelihood criterion is developed. Probability of error equations are derived, and utilized to evaluate the performance of the two systems. MCFH systems are found to outperform FFH systems when the channel delay spread is severe, while FFH systems are superior to MCFH systems when a channel varies rapidly. Furthermore, it is found that performance enhancement due to an increase of diversity order is more significant for MCFH systems than for FFH systems in frequency-selective fading channels. The effect of frequency-selective fading is also investigated in determining optimum frequency deviations of binary frequency-shift keying signals.