What is Spread Spectrum Technology

Spread spectrum technology has blossomed from a military technology into one of the fundamental building blocks in current and next-generation wireless systems. From cellular to cordless to wireless LAN (WLAN) systems, spectrum is a vital component in the system design process. The spread spectrum defines methods for wireless devices to use to send a number of narrowband frequencies over a range of frequencies simultaneously for communication.


The narrowband frequencies used between devices change according to a random-appearing, but defined pattern, allowing individual frequencies to contain parts of the transmission. Someone listening to a transmission using spread spectrum would hear only noise, unless their device understood in advance what frequencies were used for the transmission and could synchronize with them.

Two methods of synchronizing wireless devices are:

• Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS)
  
  
• Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)

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