The use of rate-compatible punctured turbo and rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPT/RCPC) codes as channel codes in a direct-sequence code-division multiple-access system where the system bandwidth expansion is fixed is investigated. The best RCPC and RCPT code rate in terms of maximizing the system spectral efficiency and minimizing the optimal power allocation where the receiver is either a matched filter (MF) or a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) device is assessed. It is shown that

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... for the MF receiver, the coding-spreading tradeoff favors a code-rate reduction. In the case of the MMSE receiver, when the 0 value and the system load are increased, the best code rate also increases. By examining the slope of the performance curves, it is deduced that, under similar operating conditions, the best code rate of the RCPT codes is lower than that of the RCPC codes. Also, the best code rate for a Rayleigh fading channel is lower than that for an additive white Gaussian noise channel. Index Terms-Code-division multiple access (CDMA), coding-spreading tradeoff, linear receivers, rate-compatible punctured codes, rate-compatible punctured turbo and rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPT/RCPC) codes.