We present two code-acquisition schemes for a multicarrier direct-sequence code-division multiple-access system, one that uses equal gain combining and the other that uses selection combining. The code-acquisition performance of the two multicarrier systems, as well as that of a single-carrier system, are analyzed in both nonfading and Rayleigh fading channels under the assumption that the receiver is chip-synchronized; the effect of partial-band interference (PBI) on the performance is also included. It is demonstrated that in an additive white Gaussian noise channel, the single-carrier system has a better code-acquisition performance than both multicarrier systems. However, in a Rayleigh fading channel, the code-acquisition performance of a multicarrier system with equal gain combining is better than that of the single-carrier system, while a multicarrier system with selection combining has the same performance as the single-carrier system. Further, the presence of PBI more severely affects the code-acquisition performance of the single-carrier system than those of both multicarrier systems. Finally, the code-acquisition performance of a multicarrier system with equal gain combining is always better than that of the selection combining system.

We present Walsh-quadrature phase-shift keying (Walsh-QPSK) pseudonoise (PN) modulation schemes for both coherent and noncoherent direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems, wherein the PN spreading sequences for in-phase and quadrature data in a conventional QPSK PN modulation scheme are coded by Walsh sequences indexed by a special rule to reduce the envelope variation of the transmitted signal. The signal characteristics of the two schemes are analyzed when a rectangular-shaped PN chip pulse is used, and it is shown that the proposed coherent DS-CDMA system has a constant envelope even in the presence of a transmitted phase reference. We simulate the signals to obtain the envelope variations when a spectrally efficient shaped PN chip pulse is used, and compare the results with those of conventional QPSK and orthogonal QPSK (OQPSK) PN modulation schemes. The results show that both the noncoherent and coherent Walsh-QPSK schemes have smaller envelope variations than the conventional noncoherent QPSK and OQPSK PN modulation schemes, even though in the coherent Walsh-QPSK scheme the pilot channel is added to the signal channel.