Spread Spectrum PN Code Acquisition Using Hybrid Correlator Architectures

A hybrid correlator architecture is described which combines the serial structure of an active correlator with the parallel structure of a matched filter correlator. The mean PN code acquisition time performance of this hybrid serial-parallel correlator structure is analysed. Results are shown which compare the acquisition performance of the serial, parallel, and serial-parallel structures. The results are for a PN code length of 64 code chips and assumes a Gaussian channel with the receiver detection threshold set to obtain a constant false alarm rate. An enhancement to the serial-parallel acquisition algorithm is also described which can increase the acquisition time performance by about 15% for typical operating conditions. Overall the results demonstrate that the hybrid correlator can provide rapid code acquisition with a limited receiver complexity.