Design and Implementation of Code Acquisition Using Sparse Fourier Transform

Code acquisition is the kernel operation for signal synchronization in the spread-spectrum receiver. To reduce the computational complexity and latency of code acquisition, this paper proposes an efficient scheme employing sparse Fourier transform (SFT) and the relevant hardware architecture for field programmable gate array (FPGA) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) implementation. Efforts are made at both the algorithmic level and the implementation level to enable merged searching of code phase and Doppler frequency without incurring massive hardware expenditure. Compared with the existing code acquisition approaches, it is shown from theoretical analysis and experimental results that the proposed design can shorten processing latency and reduce hardware complexity without degrading the acquisition probability.