AbstractThe spectral efficiency of a multicarrier direct‐sequence code‐division multiple‐access (MC/DS‐CDMA) cellular system, operating in a mobile radio environment with Rayleigh fading, is investigated and evaluated in terms of channel capacity (in the Shannon sense) per user, estimated in an average sense. The analysis is based on the combination of path‐diversity reception, achieved by a conventional coherent maximal‐ratio combining (MRC) RAKE receiver and the physical frequency diversity potential provided by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). As shown, a closed‐form expression for the achieved spectral efficiency of the considered system's operation is derived following a recently presented general method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.