Mean Spectral Efficiency Evaluation of the Uplink of MC-CDMA Cellular Systems

The mean spectral efficiency of the uplink of MC-CDMA cellular systems is evaluated. The complete system employs the multicarrier-code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) technique, a linear antenna array at the base stations, frequency interleaving, maximal ratio combining, adaptive modulation, perfect power control and a cyclic prefix large enough to eliminate the intersymbol and intercarrier interferences effects. This scenario assumes the presence of multiple access interference, co-channel interference, additive white Gaussian noise, exponential path-loss and slow and frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. In this context, a procedure to calculate the mean spectral efficiency of the cellular network is proposed, which depends of the mean bit error rate, the channel reuse factor, the increase of bandwidth due to the cyclic prefix, the system load, the spreading factor, the cell radius and the modulation schemes. Results show that an unitary channel reuse factor is the most efficient way to use the spectrum, but it is critical in relation to the transmission rates. Also, as orthogonal frequency division multiple access technique is a particular case of MC-CDMA, the spectral efficiency of both techniques is compared.