Multipath diversity reception in a spread spectrum communication system

摘要

The present invention involves a receiving method and apparatus for use in a communication system wherein a spread-spectrum signal containing information bits is transmitted within an environment tending to produce multipath fading. The receiving apparatus includes a channel estimator which estimates channel coefficients, preferably corresponding to the level of correlation between the various multipath components of the spread-spectrum signal and a cell-correlation signal. A channel selector is configured to select one or more of the multipath components based on the channel coefficients, typically choosing multipath components with the greatest level of correlation, a condition which is indicative of a high signal-to-noise power ratio. The channel selector also identifies time delay values representing the time delay between such selected multipath components, such time delay values being used by a spread-spectrum receiver to identity the selected multipath components for presentation on plural diversity branches. A combiner combines the diversity branches in a predetermined manner, typically by weighted summation using weighting factors produced by the channel selector. A decoder extracts information from the combined signal.