A Fast Acquisition Technique For Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Communication Systems

With the proliferation of Direct Spread Spectrum Systems (DSSS) in the communications arena, synchronization techniques that offer improved performance and higher speed are of great value. Matched filter approaches have gained momemtum in recent years, while sliding correlators have experienced slower development. There are several other schemes which have limited application, such as the Rapid Acquisition by Sequential Estimation (RASE) or maximum likelihood Algorithm Techniques [1]. However, the focus of this paper deals with a modification to the sliding correlator implementation. A unique multi-phase correlator (PMC) intended to decrease the mean time to acquire synchronization by exployting properties of Pseudo-Noise (PN) sequences is introduced. These properties are used to create a novel signal structure for the receiver local correlator. A brief explanation of the signal structure is followed by a detailed design method based on PN code properties