Multiple Dwell Serial Acquisition for Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Systems

This paper provides a simple derivation of an expression for the mean synchronization time of a multiple-dwell serial search code synchronization scheme using non-coherent square law envelope detection. In addition, the results of a numerical optimization of the detector integration times and thresholds is presented for single, double, and triple dwell systems. The analysis applies to any search-lock strategy including those using both a different integration time and decision threshold on each dwell.