Study on the OVSF code selection for downlink MC-CDMA

In downlink MC-CDMA, orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) codes can be used to allow multirate communications while maintaining the orthogonality among the users with different data rates. In this paper, we point out that simple selection of the OVSF codes results in degraded performance. We show that this happens because simple code selection results in power concentration over certain consecutive subcarriers; severe power loss in the received signal occurs when these subcarriers experience a deep fade in a frequency selective fading channel. In addition, we show two effective techniques to avoid the performance degradation: random code selection and frequency interleaving; which technique provides a better performance depends on modulation level, code multiplexing order, and presence of channel coding.