Performance comparison of asynchronous and synchronous code-division multiple-access techniques for fiber-optic local area networks

Synchronous code-division multiple access (S/CDMA) is investigated for fiber-optic local area networks. It is shown that the large bandwidth expansion required by spread-spectrum techniques, such as CDMA, can be accommodated by using a fiber-optic channel for transmission and incoherent optical signal processing for code generation and correlation. Prime sequence codes, previously developed for a fiber-optic network using (asynchronous) CDMA, are modified to fit a synchronous transmission format. A performance comparison of CDMA and S/CDMA systems reveals that S/CDMA can accommodate a larger number of subscribers and more simultaneous users than CDMA. An environment for which S/CDMA would be suited is discussed.>