The origins of spread-spectrum communications
Abstract
While conventional communication systems other than wide-band frequency modulation (FM) have a multiplicity factor near unity, spread-spectrum (SS) systems typically have multiplicity factors in the thousands. Thus, a well-designed SS system forces a jammer to guess which of a multiplicity of orthogonal signaling formats is being employed, or to reduce significantly his power per format by jamming all possibilities. The state of the art in communication theory and technology in the 1940's is examined as a basis for assessing the ingenuity which went into the development of the first SS systems. Accounts of early SS developments are given to some extent as system genealogies. A description is provided of branches on the SS tree, taking into account the spread-spectrum radar, Phantom, WOOF, RACEP, Cherokee, MUTNS, RADA, Kathryn, NOMAC systems, and spread-spectrum developments outside the U.S.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Communications
- Pub Date:
- May 1982
- Bibcode:
- 1982ITCom..30..822S
- Keywords:
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- Communication Theory;
- Histories;
- Jamming;
- Research And Development;
- Spread Spectrum Transmission;
- Communication Networks;
- Matched Filters;
- Missile Control;
- Pulse Position Modulation;
- Radar;
- Signal To Noise Ratios;
- Signal Transmission;
- Communications and Radar