Acquisition of direct-sequence spread-spectrum signal with parallel matched filters

A new synchronization acquisition detector for a direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS-SS) signal is described and evaluated. The detector uses a parallel set of matched filters with multi-valued code-weights as filter-coefficients. It selects the largest sample in a similar way to the conventional parallel acquisition detector, but it uses a much more precise decision scheme. Since the detector uses matched filters with multi-valued coefficients, it can take the synchronized average of each sample to decide whether the acquisition is established or not for shorter duration than the conventional detector. Computer simulation shows that the proposed detector outperforms conventional parallel acquisition detector because its decision mode is very accurate and its synchronized average scheme improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).