In a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite mobile multimedia system, the multiple access scheme should be capable of supporting the necessary features that would facilitate the provision of multimedia services. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) is an attractive multiple access scheme for mobile multimedia communications based on LEO satellites. In this paper, the performance of WCDMA system over LEO satellite channel is evaluated. The performance is measured in terms of the bit error probability. A mathematical derivation of the bit error probability is presented. A rake receiver with maximal ratio combining is considered in the analysis. The effect of the number of users and the processing
gain on the performance of the WCDMA system is investigated.