UNIT: 3

FREQUENCY HOPPING SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEM

3.1 Non-Coherent Frequency Hopping Systems
 The type of spread spectrum in which the carrier hops randomly from one frequency to
another is called frequency hopping spread spectrum. Taking a basic modulation
technique by changing carrier frequency in some pseudo manner is a frequency hopping
(FH) approach. FH system in which the carriers phases of transmitted hop frequency
pulses have no relationship with each other is called non coherent FH system. Phase
continuity is maintained from one hop pulse to another is called coherent FH system.

Figure 3.1 Block diagram of FH/BPSK system

 The position of the binary signal is shifted pseudo randomly within a bandwidth WSS. In
an FH /BFSK system the data symbol modulates a carrier. The frequency of the carrier
is pseudo randomly determined. There are two modulation processes,
i. Data modulation and
ii. Frequency hopping modulation.
 Frequency synthesizes can be used to generate several output frequencies from a
single stable frequency. K chip PN sequence generator controls a frequency synthesizes
which hops the carrier within 2k frequencies. A more jammer resistance approach is to
use M distinct frequency synthesizers to hop the binary symbols.

Name of the Subject: Spread Spectrum Communication Sub Code: EC T53

Name of the faculty: S.JAYANTHI Yr/ Sem / Sec: IV/VII/

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 1

Date: Day: Hour:

3.2 UNCODED FREQUENCY-HOPPED BINARY FREQUENCY-SHIFT-KEYING

 Taking a basic modulation technique and changing the carrier frequency in some
pseudorandom manner is the frequency-hopping approach to generating a spread-
spectrum signal. The most common modulations used with frequency hopping are the
M-ary frequency-shift-keying (MFSK) modulations together with non-coherent reception.
This section illustrates some additional basic concepts with the frequency-hopped binary
frequency shift- keying (FH/BFSK) spread-spectrum signals.

Figure 3.2. Repeat code m = 5 with known jammer state/hard decision.

Ordinary BFSK signals have the form

s(t )  2S sin[ot  d n t ];

------ (1)
nTb  t  (n  1)Tb , n  int eger.
Here Tb is the data bit time and {dn} are the independent data bits where

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 2

  1, with probability 1/ 2
dn   ----- (2)
1, with probability 1/ 2
Typically we choose
Tb   ----- (3)

Figure 3.2. Repeat code m = 9 with known jammer state/hard decision.

 So that the two possible transmitter tones are orthogonal for all relative phase shifts over
the Tb second interval.
 Frequency hopping of this BFSK signal is done with a pseudorandom binary sequence
that is used to select a set of carrier frequency shifts resulting in the frequency-hopped
signal

x(t )  2S sin[ot  nt  d n t ];

----- (4)
nTb  t  (n  1)Tb , n  int eger.

 Where n is the particular hop frequency chosen for the n-th transmission interval.

Generally, if L pseudorandom binary symbols are used to select a frequency shift each
Tb seconds, then there are at most 2L distinct frequency shift values possible. The

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 3

 range of values taken by these frequency shifts defines the total spread-spectrum signal
bandwidth Wss. Although this total spread bandwidth need not be contiguous, it is
assumed here that this band is a contiguous frequency range.
 Figure 3.3 illustrates the basic uncoded FH/BFSK system. For simplicity, assume the
receiver’s PN sequence generator is synchronized with that of the transmitter and, thus,
frequency dehop at the receiver removes the effects of the pseudorandom frequency
shifts. A conventional non-coherent BFSK receiver follows the frequency dehop.
Essentially, the transmitted signal is a conventional BFSK signal that has a shifting
carrier frequency and the receiver has a conventional BFSK receiver that merely shifts
its center frequency together with that of the transmitter.
 The outputs of the energy detectors in Figure 3.3 are denoted e- and e+. If there were
no jamming signal present and if d =1 were transmitted, these outputs would be e- =0
and e+ =STb, the BFSK pulse energy. In general, the non-coherent decision rule based
on the additive white Gaussian noise channel is
^  1, e  e
d ----- (5)
1, e  e
 During any Tb second interval, the transmitted signal is a tone of duration Tb seconds
and has a (sin2x)/x2 spectrum of bandwidth roughly 2/Tb centered at frequency o + n

The transmitted signal would then be one of two possible tones separated in frequency
by 2v. This “instantaneous bandwidth” is generally a small fraction of the total spread-
spectrum signal bandwidth Wss, which is primarily determined by the range of frequency
shift values generated by the frequency hopping.
 For each Tb second interval, the particular bit error probability is determined by the
amount of jammer power in the “instantaneous bandwidth” of the signal that contributes
to the energy terms e+ and e-. The overall bit error probability is then the average of
these particular bit error probabilities where the average is taken over all frequency-
hopped shifts.
3.2.1 Constant Power Broadband Noise Jammer
 Assume that the jammer transmits broadband noise over the total spread spectrum band
with constant power J. Thus, during any Tb second interval, regardless of the carrier
frequency shift, there will be an equivalent white Gaussian noise process in the
“instantaneous bandwidth” of the transmitted signal. The one-sided noise spectral
density is NJ =J/Wss. Since an equivalent white Gaussian noise process is encountered

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 4

 in all parts of the total spread-spectrum band, the bit error probability for the uncoded
FH/BFSK system of Figure 3.3 is the same as that for conventional
 BFSK in white Gaussian noise, namely
1  ( Eb /2 N J )
Pb  e ----- (6)
2
 This is the baseline performance of the FH/BFSK system.

Figure 3.3. Uncoded FH/BFSK system

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 5

Name of the Subject: Spread Spectrum Communication Sub Code: EC T53
Name of the faculty: S.JAYANTHI Yr/ Sem / Sec: IV/VII/
Date: Day: Hour:
3.2.2 Partial-Band Noise Jammer
 Next, consider the impact of partial-band noise jamming where the jammer transmits
noise over a fraction r of the total spread-spectrum signal band. Denoting the jammed
frequency band by WJ, and in the jammed part of the band, the equivalent single-sided
noise spectral density. Assume that WJ is large compared to the bandwidth of the
unhopped BFSK signal and the effects of the signal hopping onto the edge of this band
are negligible. That is, ignore the possibility that when a signal is sent it is frequency-
hopped to the edge where only part of the instantaneous band of the signal is jammed.
This assumes either a signal is hopped into the jammed band or not. In addition, the
jammer is allowed to change the band it is jamming and so the transmitter and receiver
never known a priori which frequency range are being jammed.
 We again introduce the jammer state parameter Z for each Tb interval where now with
probability distribution
1, signal in jammed band .
Z  ----- (7)
0, signal not in jammed jammed
 The bit error probability is then given by

Pb  Pr{e  e | d  1}
 Pr{e  e | d  1, Z  1}Pr{Z  1}
 Pr{e  e | d  1, Z  0}Pr{Z  0}

 e  ( Eb /2 N J ) ----- (8)
2
 Where there are no errors when the signal hops out of the jammed band. Figure 3.4
illustrates the bit error probability for various values of  .The value of  that maximizes
Pb is easily obtained by differentiation and found to be
 2 E / NJ  2
 , b
 *   Eb / N J ----- (9)
 1, Eb / N J  2

 This yields the maximum value of Pb given by

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 6

  e 1
 Eb / N J  2
Eb / N J
Pb   ----- (10)
 1 e  ( Eb /2 N J ) E / N  2
 2 b J

 Figure 3.5 shows this worst case value of the bit error probability. Here at 10 -6 bit error
probability there is a 40 dB difference between broadband noise jamming and the worst
case partial-band noise jamming for the same jammer power.

Figure 3.4. FH/BFSK—Partial-band noise jammer.

 The partial-band noise jammer effect on the uncoded FH/BFSK system is analogous to
the pulse noise jammer effect on the uncoded DS/BPSK system. In both systems, these
jammers cause considerable degradation by concentrating more jammer power on a
fraction of the transmitted uncoded symbols. This potentially large degradation is
explained by the fact that the uncoded bit error probability varies dramatically with small
changes in the effective bit energy-to-jammer noise ratio, Eb/NJ. Thus, the jammer can
cause high error probabilities for a fraction of the transmitted bits resulting in a high
average bit error probability. For the uncoded FH/BFSK system, pulse noise jamming

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 7

 and partial-band noise jamming have the same effect on performance. These are
essentially equivalent ways of concentrating more jammer power on some fraction of the
uncoded transmitted symbols. Using pulse noise jamming or a combination of pulse
noise and partial-band noise jamming would give the same results as we found for
partial-band noise alone.

Figure 3.5. FH/BFSK—Against jammers.

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 8

Name of the Subject: Spread Spectrum Communication Sub Code: EC T53
Name of the faculty: S.JAYANTHI Yr/ Sem / Sec: IV/VII/
Date: Day: Hour:

3.2.3 Multitone Jammer

 Recall that each signal tone of Tb second duration has one-sided first null bandwidth
1/Tb. For the total spread-spectrum signal bandwidth Wss, there are possible orthogonal
tone positions. Each FH/BFSK signal would then use an adjacent pair of these tone
positions to transmit one data bit. The pair of tone positions selected at any data bit time
is determined by the PN sequence generator.
N  WSSTb
 Consider a jammer that transmits many tones each of energy SJTb. With total power J
there are at most jammer tones randomly scattered across the band. The probability that
any given signal tone position is jammed with a jammer tone is, thus,
J
Nt  ----- (11)
SJ
Nt

N
J
 ----- (12)
S J WSS Tb

 Here  is also a fraction of the signal tone positions that are jammed. Assume that the
jammer has exact knowledge of the N possible signal tone positions and places the Nt
jamming tones in some subset of these N positions, where Nt , N is always assumed.
 During the transmission of a data bit, one of two possible adjacent tone positions is used
by the transmitter. An error occurs if the detected energy is the alternate tone position
not containing the transmitted signal tone is larger than the detected energy in the
transmitted tone position. This can occur only if a jammer tone occurs in this alternative
tone position. Here, ignore the smaller probability of a jammer tone in both positions and
assume an error occurs if and only if a jammer tone with power SJ  S occurs in the
alternative tone position. Thus, the probability of a bit error is
J
Pb    ----- (13)
S J WSS Tb

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 9

provided SJ >S. From the communicator’s standpoint, the worst choice of SJ is SJ = S resulting
in the maximum bit error probability
J
P*b 
S J WSS Tb

1
 ----- (14)
Eb / N J
 This bit error probability is slightly larger than the worst partial-band noise jammer
performance; the results are essentially the same. Figure 3.5 shows the bit error
probabilities for broadband noise jamming, worst partial-band noise jamming, and worst
multitone jamming.

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 10

Name of the Subject: Spread Spectrum Communication Sub Code: EC T53
Name of the faculty: S.JAYANTHI Yr/ Sem / Sec: IV/VII/
Date: Day: Hour:

3.3 CODED FREQUENCY-HOPPED BINARY FREQENCY-SHIFT-KEYING

 Figure 3.25 illustrates the up to 45 dB of degradation at 10 -6bit error probability that a
jammer can cause to an uncoded FH/BFSK system using the same average power J. As
was done for the DS/BPSK system, we show next how a simple repeat code can
effectively neutralize the degradation because of multitone jamming.
 Assume that m FH/BFSK tones are transmitted for each data bit. In particular assume
the simple repeat m code where for each data bit, m identical BFSK tones are sent
where each of these tones are hopped separately. Referring to these tones or codeword
components as “chips,”m chips make up a single data bit. The chip duration is
Tb
Tc  ----- (15)
m
 Requiring each of the chip tones to be orthogonal results in the total number of
orthogonal chip tones to be
Nc  WSSTc

 WSS Tb / m ----- (16)

 With is m times smaller than the uncoded case. As before, assume the jammer sends
multiple tones where the number of jammer tones is still given by (11). Again, choose SJ
= S so that the probability that a particular chip tone position is jammed is given by
Nt

Nc
J /S

WSS Tb / m

m
 ----- (17)
Eb N J
 After dehopping, the receiver is assumed to detect the energy in each of the two
possible chip tone frequencies for every Tc second interval. The decoder adds up the
chip energies for each of the two possible BFSK frequencies and makes a decision
based on which of these has more total energy. In this case, an error is made only if a
jammer tone occurs in all m of the chip tone frequencies corresponding to the BFSK

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 11

 frequency that was not transmitted. This occurs with probability since each chip is
independently hopped.
Pb   m
m
 m 
  ----- (18)
 Eb N J 
 This analysis ignored the effects of jamming tones occurring in the same frequencies as
the transmitted chips. Also, it could have considered the cases where the jammer tone
power SJ is larger than S so that less than m jammed tones could still cause an error
 The bit error probability given in (18) is plotted in Figure 3.6 for various values of m. The
m = 1 case is the uncoded case considered in the previous section. Note that there
exists a value of m that achieves a bit error probability close to the baseline case of
broadband noise jamming.
 The repeat m code is a simple code of rate R= 1/m bits per coded bit. It is also referred
to as diversity of order m. Diversity techniques are useful in combatting deep fades in a
fading channel. For similar reasons, diversity is effective for multitone jamming and for
worst case partial-band jamming. We shall see later, however, that there are more
effective codes than simple diversity.

Figure 3.26. FH/BFSK with diversity—multitone jammer.

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 12

  As with the DS/BPSK example, the use of coding here did not change the data rate of
the total spread-spectrum bandwidth Wss. Only the instantaneous bandwidth associated
with each coded bit or chip became wider.

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 13

Name of the Subject: Spread Spectrum Communication Sub Code: EC T53
Name of the faculty: S.JAYANTHI Yr/ Sem / Sec: IV/VII/
Date: Day: Hour:

3.4 PERFORMANCE OF FH/MDPSK IN THE PRESENCE OF PARTIAL-BAND MULTITONE

JAMMING
 DPSK stands for differential phase shift keying, this scheme depends on the difference
between successive phases. It is simple to implement than BPSK. There is no need for
demodulator to have a reference signal and it is a non-coherent scheme. In differentially
encoded BPSK a binary 1’s may be transmitted by adding 180o to the current phase and
a binary 0’s is transmitted by adding 0 o to the current phase. In the receiver instead of
demodulating, the phase between two successive received symbols are combined and
used to determine what data has been transmitted.
 Differentially encoded techniques are used in applications where the receiver is unable
to provide an exact carrier reference phase for demodulating each data symbol, it
provides a possible solution to the effect of phase discontinuities introduced by
frequency hopping.
 In FH/DPSK system information to be transmitted in the ith interval is conveyed by
selecting once of the M phases.
(2m  1)
m 
m
 The transmitted signal,
 ( i 1) )
S ( i ) (t )  Ae j (
(i )

Where,
A is the amplitude of the transmitted signal
 (i 1) is the total accumulated phase in the i-1 interval.
 A jamming J(t) constant in both phase and amplitude is added to the transmitted signal,
the jammer signal in complex form is given by
J  Ie j J
Where,  J is a random phase distributed in the interval (0 to 2Π )

The channel output in complex form is given by

 ( i 1) )
y (i )  Ae j (  Ie j J
(i )

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 14

  At the receiver side we get a phase estimate and is given by,
^
 (i )   k

 Where K is such that | arg ( y ( i )  y ( i 1) )   k | . If  m is the true value of  (i ) a
M.
^

symbol error is made where  ( i )   k and whenever | arg ( y (i )  y ( i 1) )   k | , rotate
M

the actual transmitted by radians so that the transmitted signal phases become
m
2 m m
m  , where m  0, 1, 2,.....,  and Q2 m denote that term probability of a
M 2 M

particular error event.


Q2 m  Pr{| arg( y (i )  y (i 1) )   k | }
M
M
 Average symbol error probability for MDPSK is presence of multitone jamming

PS ( M ) 
M
Q m
2 m
M

 Since,  J is uniformly distributed Q2 m  Q2 m

M M

 If  m  0 is transmitted then y ( i 1) and y (i ) are identical vectors. (i.e) there is no phase

change y (i 1)  y (i ) . Therefore | arg( y ( i )  y (i 1) )   k | 0 then Qo  0 .

 Then, Ps(M) is given as,

 M 2

 
Q  2  Q2 n / M 
2
PS ( M ) 
M n 1

 
 Finally, using the relation between average symbol and bit error probabilistic we get,
 M 
Pb ( M )  PS ( M )  
 2( M  1) 
 The average bit error probability for MDPSK in the presence of multitone jamming is
given by,

 M 2

  Q  2  Q2 n / M 
2
Pb ( M ) 
2( M  1)  n 1

 

S.JAYANTHI/Assistant Professor/Department of ECE/SMVEC Page 15