Two-dimensional code acquisition in time and angular domains

The extension of conventional delay-domain code acquisition to the angular domain is explored. The uncertainty region is partitioned into a number of delay and angular cells. In single-path channels where the interference is modeled as temporarily and spatially white, there exists an optimum number of angular cells minimizing the mean acquisition time. Mean acquisition times up to three times shorter can be attained with the two-dimensional approach. A rather similar behavior is in general found in Lth-order equal amplitude multipath channels, where paths are contiguous in the delay or angular domains. The strategy employed to search through the uncertainty region may have a considerable impact on acquisition performance. The results reveal that the search should proceed not in the direction of the multipath spread but in the other available domain. Proper selection of the search strategy can reduce the synchronization time by a factor of up to two. Two-dimensional code acquisition in scenarios with spatially nonuniform interference is also investigated. In general, the acquisition performance is degraded by the presence of nonuniform interference in the angular domain.