DS-CDMA systems employing long-period PN sequences are becoming a widespread standard of wireless communication systems. However, fast acquisition of long-period PN sequences at a low hardware cost is conventionally a difficult problem. This paper examines a recently proposed fast acquisition algorithm for a class of PN sequences, which includes m and GMW sequences as special cases, under conditions of unknown received RF phase and chip boundary timing. The result shows that under low input (chip) SNR and the required delay estimation accuracy of Tc/Δ, Δ=2,3,…, the mean acquisition time can be considerably reduced compared to other known representative acquisition schemes. Its fast acquisition capability is based on a decomposition of long PN sequences into a number of short ones and achieves a significantly reduced code phase uncertainty of acquisition at relatively small hardware cost, estimated as 2/3 of the equivalent parallel correlators system. It can be applied as a (part of) acquisition scheme of a DS-CDMA system instead of a slow sliding correlator or a costly matched filter schemes.

DS/CDMA systems employing long-period PN sequences are becoming a widespread standard of wireless communication systems. However, fast acquisition of long-period PN sequences at a low hardware cost is conventionally a difficult problem. This paper proposes a new fast acquisition algorithm for a class of PN sequences, which includes m- and GMW sequences as special cases, and shows that the mean (correct) acquisition time can be considerably reduced under input SNR values well below those used in modern DS/CDMA systems. Its fast acquisition capability is based on a decomposition of long PN sequences into a number of short ones and achieves a significantly reduced code phase uncertainty of acquisition at relatively small hardware cost. It can be applied as a (part of) acquisition system of a DS/CDMA system instead of a slow sliding correlator or a costly matched filter.