Method and apparatus for cell searching in an asynchronous wideband CDMA receiver

摘要

An apparatus for searching for a cell and a method of acquiring a code unique to each cell in an asynchronous wideband Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS/CDMA) receiver are provided. The cell searching apparatus searches for a cell based on a received asynchronous wideband DS/CDMA signal in a receiver. The received signal includes a data channel and a synchronous channel composed of a first code commonly used in every cell and a third code indicating a code group grouping a plurality of second codes differently assigned to cells. The cell searching apparatus includes a code group identifying unit for estimating and compensating for a frequency error between the synchronous channel and an internally generated primary synchronization code, estimating and compensating for channel degradation which the synchronous channel has experienced, and performing correlation on the compensated synchronous channel and available secondary synchronization codes, thereby identifying the code group; and a scrambling code identifying unit for performing correlation on a plurality of scrambling codes belonging to the code group, thereby obtaining a scrambling code unique to each cell. By estimating and compensating a frequency error, the cell searching performance can be improved, and eventually, the cell search time can be reduced.