Combination power/inphase correlator for spread spectrum receiver

• US 20020064214A1
• Filed: 11/21/2001
• Published: 05/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nippon Soken, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nippon Soken, Inc.
• Inventors: Morita, Hideyuki, Sato, Tatsuya, Hattori, Toshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,027,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/150
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/709 Correlator structure

Abstract

A correlator receives an inphase signal and a quadrature signal as incoming signals. In the correlator, a despreading circuit despreads the incoming signals using spreading codes. Further a complex conjugate multiplication circuit 60 multiplies the respective despread signals by the complex conjugate of pilot signals into synchronized signals. The synchronized signals corresponding to a predetermined number of symbols are averaged into average signals. Then the power of the average signals is calculated, and an auxiliary signal is generated by multiplying the power by a factor. On the other hand, the power of the despread signals is calculated, and the power corresponding to the predetermined number of symbols are averaged into an average power signal. The correlation output of the correlator is generated by adding the average power signal and the auxiliary signal. This correlator is immune to the frequency variation of its oscillator and noise.

Claims

1. A correlator for generating a correlation signal representing correlation between a received signal and spreading codes, comprising:

despreading means for despreading an inphase component and a quadrature component of said received signal using said respective spreading codes into despread signals;

conversion means for converting said despread signals into synchronized signals which are inphase with each other;

first averager means for averaging said respective synchronized signals over a predetermined period into first average signals;

first power calculation means for calculating first power information on said first average signals;

second power calculation means for calculating second power information on said despread signals;

second averager means for averaging said second power information over said predetermined period into second average signals; and

correlation calculation means for calculating said correlation signal based on said first power information and said second average signals.

2. A correlator as in claim 1, said correlation calculation means comprising:

multiplication means for multiplying one of said first power information and said second average signal by a factor and outputting a result of the multiplication as an auxiliary signal; and

addition means for adding said auxiliary signal and another of said first power information and said second average signal and outputting a result of the addition as said correlation signal.

3. A method for generating a composite correlation signal representing correlation between a first signal and a second signal, comprising the steps of:

generating a first correlation signal representing correlation between a first component of said first signal and a first component of said second signal at regular intervals over a predetermined period;

generating a second correlation signal representing correlation between a second component of said first signal and a second component of said second signal at regular intervals over a predetermined period;

converting said first and second correlation signals into synchronized signals which are inphase with each other;

averaging said respective synchronized signals over said predetermined period into first and second average signals;

calculating power of said first and second average signals into a first power signal;

calculating power of said first and second correlation signals into a second power signal;

averaging said second power signal over said predetermined period into a third average signal; and

calculating said composite correlation signal based on said first power signal and said third average signal.

4. A method as in claim 3, said step of calculating said composite correlation signal comprising the steps of:

multiplying one of said first power signal and said third average signal by a factor and generating a result of the multiplication as an auxiliary signal;

adding said auxiliary signal and another of said first power signal and said third average signal and outputting a result of the addition as said correlation signal.