Performance Improvement of CDMA Wireless Sensor Networks in Low SNR Channels Based on Raptor Codes

• Published in: Wireless personal communications Vol. 130; no. 4; pp. 2451 - 2470
• Main Authors: Farhan, Ikhlas M., Zaghar, Dhafer R., Abdullah, Hadeel N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Channels; Code Division Multiple Access; Coding; Communications Engineering; Communications systems; Computer Communication Networks; Engineering; Networks; Signal to noise ratio; Signal,Image and Speech Processing; Wireless sensor networks; LSNR; Raptor codes; CDMA; Rateless code
• ISSN: 0929-6212; 1572-834X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11277-023-10387-3

Low signal to noise ratio (SNR) channels require careful design of communication systems in order to operate reliably in such extreme channels. Special measures and techniques must be considered when designing communication systems for such environments to counteract the effect of high noise power. Channel coding is a powerful tool to aid against adverse channel conditions including low SNR. Coupling channel coding with a spreading technique can further strengthen the performance of communication systems. Hence, we studied the performance of a system that combines Raptor codes with direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) in low SNR scenarios. The studied design can operate in a wide range of low SNR values. Simulation results show that the system can offer satisfactory BER performance at different code rates. Also, combining Raptor codes with DS-CDMA showed an improvement of approximately 6 dB when compared with other schemes using DS-CDMA in low SNR conditions.