A critical review of CDMA

The pros and cons of CDMA as a multiple access scheme for third generation cellular mobile radio systems are considered. The main criteria are spectral efficiency and capacity, but also flexibility and costs. In these radio systems the multiple access scheme should be chosen adaptively depending on location, momentary system load and desired services. CDMA offers the advantages of frequency diversity and interferer diversity, which enhance spectral efficiency and capacity. CDMA with single user detection is very flexible and supports variable data rates and services. However, this advantage is cut back by the increased interference. In the case of less flexible interference reducing CDMA schemes, intracell interference is eliminated which increases the spectral efficiency and capacity.