CDMA CODE SYNCHRONIZATION USING SEGMENTED
MATCHED FILTER WITH ACCUMULATION AND BEST MATCH
SELECTION
AMREEN SYEDA,
IV-ECE, DR.K.V.S.R.I.T,
EMAIL ID:syeda_amreen29@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates code phase acquisition in direct-sequence
spread spectrum (DS-SS) systems under conditions of high co-user
noise and significant carrier frequency offset (Doppler). While
conventional serial search acquisition is tolerant of these conditions,
the process is quite slow. Conventional matched filters can provide fast
acquisition but are unable to handle significant carrier frequency
offset. This paper describes a segmented matched filter (SMF) that
provides rapid acquisition under conditions of frequency offset and
high noise. An accumulation and best match selection scheme is
introduced and its performance is compared to the segmented matched
filter with threshold detection and also to a conventional non-coherent
correlator with serial search. Expected acquisition time is shown as a
function of multiple access interference in the presence of carrier
Doppler. Example calculations are based on GPS transmission
parameters. In addition to calculated probability density functions
(PDFs), the paper presents measured PDFs from a mixed-signal ASIC
that implements a 512 chip SMF with half-chip code phase resolution.
With this acquisition method, the receiver carrier is assumed to be non-
coherent, data modulation of the DS-SS signal is allowed and prior
chip synchronization is not required.
INTRODUCTION
Code division multiple access (CDMA) using direct-sequence spread
spectrum (DS-SS) modulation is a modern trend in mobile
communication systems. Before a spread spectrum communication link
can function, three levels of synchronization must be attained in the
receiver. These are carrier synchronization, code phase synchronization,
and data bit timing. Determination of the time phase of the spreading
code sequence is referred to as
1
A.CHAITANYA LAKSHMI,
IV- ECE, DR.K.V.S.R.I.T,
EMAIL ID:sweety.amy29@gmail.com
code phase acquisition and is typically a difficult and time-consuming
process.
At the receiver, the overall received signal will have three
components. These are the useful signal, multiple access interference
(MAI) due to co-users, and Gaussian noise. We assume a high noise
environment dominated by multiple access interference with the useful
signal power as much as 20 dB lower than the noise power. We also
assume substantial frequency offset that might be due to Doppler or to
frequency error in the receiver. A non-fading channel is assumed and it
is modeled as a single transmission path with Doppler shift together
with co-user noise and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). High
Doppler applications include low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite personal
communication systems and high microwave frequency mobile
communication systems.
The received CDMA signal is represented by
(1)
r( t ) = d( t )c( t + β Tc )√2 S cos(2π f 0 t θ ( t ))  n( t )
where d(t) is the transmitted data sequence (with amplitude ±1), c(t) is
the binary spreading code of length L chips, β is the relative delay of the
spreading code, TC is the chip duration, S is the signal power of the
desired user, f0 is the receiver carrier reference frequency (local
oscillator), θ (t) is the phase of the received signal carrier relative to the
local oscillator and n(t ) is the sum of co-user noise and AWGN. We
assume co-user noise to be the dominant source of noise. A receiver
must determine the value of β such that the code phase of the
dispreading sequence in the receiver can be aligned with the code phase
of the spreading sequence c(t) at the transmitter. The receiver uses
correlation with the desired code sequence in order to detect the correct
code phase. However, this detection process is impeded by transitions in
the data signal d(t) and by rotations in θ (t) , the received signal phase.
The detection process is also impeded by signals from other co-users
that use the same transmission bandwidth. These co-users are
differentiated only by their individually unique spreading code
sequences.
Low orbits and high carrier frequencies used in LEO satellite systems
create severe Doppler shift and this presents a difficult problem with
carrier synchronization. Because of the high co-user and background
noise in the satellite channel, carrier synchronization cannot be
attempted until code phase acquisition is complete.
CONVENTIONAL ACQUISITION
METHODS
We begin with a review of the serial search and transversal matched
filter acquisition schemes. Serial search uses a ‘trial and error’
approach to determine the correct code phase [1]. The “correctness” is
evaluated by a non-coherent correlator composed of a band-pass filter,
an envelope or square law detector and an integrator as illustrated in
Fig. 1. In this “active” correlator, the received signal is multiplied by a
locally generated spreading code and, when the code phase is aligned
with the transmitter code phase, the signal is dispread and its power
falls within the range of a band-pass filter. If the code phase is incorrect,
the received signal remains spread, little signal power reaches output
and the post-detection integrator, (with “dwell” time Td) yields a small
value for the decision variable z at the output of the integrator.
Fig. 1 Serial search with non-coherent correlator [1]
With each trial, the input signal is correlated with a replica of the
desired user’s code that has a specific delay (i.e., a new code phase). In
high co-user noise environments, the dwell time must be increased to
improve averaging. The decision to accept a specific code phase or to
move on to the next code phase is made by testing the decision variable
z against a threshold. In a recent paper by J.H.J. Iinatti [2] the principles
of threshold setting in serial search are discussed. The code sequence
length determines the number of possible code phases that must be
tested, and since each test involves a dwell time, a lengthy serial search
must be performed before the communication link is usable. To its
credit, serial search acquisition with non-
2
coherent detection can handle transitions in the data signal d(t) and
modest carrier frequency shift.
In this non-coherent correlator, part of the signal averaging occurs prior
to the detector (in the BPF) and part of the averaging occurs after the
square-law detector (in the dwell integrator). Hopkins [1] has developed
expressions for the nonaligned mean, m0, the aligned mean, m1, the non-
aligned standard deviation, s0, and the aligned standard deviation, s1, of
the decision variable z. These distributions are used to calculate
transition probabilities that can then be used to predict the mean
synchronization time.
Matched filters compute correlation on a parallel basis and offer faster
acquisition performance than a serial search correlator [3]. A new code
phase candidate can be tested with each new received chip. Most
matched filters operate at baseband and are sensitive to phase error
between the signal carrier and the receiver’s local oscillator (LO). Static
phase offset is addressed by using an in-phase and quadrature (I-Q)
structure [3].
Large carrier frequency mismatches, resulting from Doppler shift or
oscillator frequency offset, cause the relative phase to change over the
length of the matched filter. This results in amplitude modulation of the
demodulated sequence and produces periodic polarity inversions in the
received sequence. Under these conditions, even the aligned code phase
condition will result in approximately zero output. Shorter filters are
less susceptible to Doppler shift but less tolerant of co-user noise.
Conventional matched filters are therefore impaired by frequency
offset.
Code Doppler is impairment in MF detection. The problem occurs when
the rate of entering samples into the shift register of the matched filter is
slightly different than the arrival rate of signal chips. In practical
situations, the effect of code Doppler is several orders of magnitude less
severe than for carrier Doppler and, in this paper, it will not be
considered further.
A segmented matched filter (SMF) is a solution to the frequency
offset problem. By segmenting the matched filter, Doppler tolerance
can be increased while maintaining sufficient tolerance to co-user noise.
Segment outputs are squared before being combined so that inverted
sequence portions add to the correlation sum. As a consequence of
segmentation, code phase alignment can be detected even when there
are transitions in the data signal d(t). The structure was initially
proposed in [4] and is illustrated in Fig. 3.
We describe a 512 sample SMF structure split into 16 segments of 32
sequence bits (chips). The SMF operates at baseband where phase or that it can be compared to the pdf of the aligned case. Since different
frequency offset in the demodulator can be addressed by an in- non-aligned samples within each code cycle are essentially
phase/quadrature (I-Q) structure [5]. Since correlation is performed uncorrelated, the cumulative distribution function (cdf) for M is
separately in each segment, allowable Doppler shift is 16 times greater determined using Papoulis [6].
than for an unsegmented 512 chip matched filter. This segmentation
increases the allowable Doppler shift from 480 Hz to 7.8 kHz. For ( L−
reference, GPS satellite systems operating at 1.5 GHz have Doppler 1)
shifts as high as 15 kHz. (3)
F
M ( x)  FONA ( x)
where L is the length of the code sequence and L-1 is the number of
non-aligned samples per cycle. In this example, the code sequence
length L = 1023 as in the GPS system.

Fig. 2 Segmented Matched Filter [4]

This increase in Doppler tolerance, comes at a cost. From a noise

averaging point of view, the matched filter effectiveness is less when
the summation/averaging occurs after non-coherent detection (i.e., the
square law devices). As developed in [5] the effective length of the
matched filter is decreased by a factor of 4 when the filter is divided
into 16 segments. Fig. 3 Cumulative Density Function, FM

BEST MATCH SELECTION The cdf of the non-aligned SMF output is differentiated to yield the pdf
of the maximum non-aligned sample within the code cycle. The cdfs
We now introduce a “pick the best” approach to detecting the aligned and pdfs for this example are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively.
code phase. This results in much faster acquisition than a threshold
based method, but it requires more hardware. In the simplest
implementation, the SMF output is stored during one complete cycle of
the code sequence and the code phase with the highest correlation is
selected. This is assumed to coincide with the aligned code phase. The
probability that the correct code phase is actually chosen can be
assessed from the probability density functions (pdfs) at the output of
the SMF.

In a sample calculation, we use GPS system parameters together with

25 co-users and 5 kHz Doppler shift. In order for the correct code phase
to be selected, the SMF output at code phase alignment must exceed the
maximum of all non-aligned SMF outputs during the entire code cycle.
If Pd is the probability of a correct decision and OA
and ONA are the output samples from the SMF for the
aligned and non-aligned conditions respectively, then
(2)
Pd  POA  max(ONA )
To calculate this probability, the new random variable M is introduced
and given the value M = max (ONA). The pdf for M must be found so Fig. 4 Max (Non-Aligned) probability density

3
To determine Pd another random variable, D, is introduced to represent
the difference D = OA – max (ONA). This allows Equation 2 to be
simplified to
(4)
P
d  P D  0
Fig. 5 Probability of detecting correct code phase, Pd
The difference pdf is found by performing a convolution of the non-
aligned maximum pdf with the aligned pdf. This pdf is shown in Fig. 6
where Pd corresponds to the area of the difference pdf for difference
values greater than zero.
For this example, Pd is relatively small and there is a high probability of
detecting an incorrect code phase (false alarm). Pf is clearly related to
the amount of pdf overlap between the aligned and non-aligned output
pdfs, and it is particularly sensitive to the upper tail of the non-aligned
pdf because of the large number of non-aligned samples per cycle.
To improve the probability of correct detection, the SMF output
samples at each code phase can be accumulated over several code
cycles. If n code cycles are tested, the means of the two pdfs become n
times greater, and the standard deviations only increase by a factor of
n . This results in a greater separation between the two pdfs and a better
probability of correct code phase detection. As the SMF output is
accumulated for several code cycles, the difference between the
maximum non-aligned case and the aligned case becomes much larger
as illustrated in Fig. 6. For this example, the pdf is almost completely
positive and the correct detection probability, Pd is nearly 100% once
the outputs from 10 code cycles are accumulated.
Accumulating and storing the code phase samples does require
additional hardware, however in many applications this hardware is
readily available. For instance, the processor in a cellular telephone is
available to help with CDMA synchronization because the call
processing software is idle at that time.
ACQUISITION TIME CALCULATION
In the preceding method, the acquisition time depends on how many
code cycles must be accumulated before the true code phase is found.
Calculation of the average acquisition time requires evaluation of the
correct detection probability (as in Fig. 6) as a function of the number of
accumulated code cycles.
For the example of 25 co-users and 5 kHz Doppler offset, the top graph
in Figure 7 shows the cdf of Pd as a function of the number of code
cycles that are accumulated. The lower graph in Fig. 7 shows the
corresponding pdf along with the calculated mean ( ) and standard
deviation (σ ). From this distribution, the mean acquisition time (time
for detecting the correct code phase) is estimated to be 2.5 code cycles
(2.5 ms).
 Fig. 7 Detection with accumulation and best selection

For the purpose of comparison, we have determined the expected

acquisition time of the serial search and matched filter synchronizers
under the same conditions. Analysis is based on flow graphs similar to Serial 5 kHz Doppler
those shown in [3]. In the calculation of acquisition time, the 1.0E+06 Search L = 1023
uncertainty region of the correct code phase is assumed to extend over Fixed
the entire sequence length which is composed of q = 2L phase positions 1.023 Mchip/s
where L is the sequence length. The expected acquisition time is Thresh.
calculated assuming that the search has started from a random starting Code cycle =1ms
position and, in the case of the SMF, it is assumed that the matched 1.0E+05
filter registers filled prior to the start of the process. Using flow graph T1 = 512 chip

(ms)
techniques we obtain the mean acquisition time as
Variable
T2 = 1023 chip
1 1 1 1.0E+04 Thresh.

Time
T  qT − 1  T1  (q − 1 )P T − 1 (5) Pfa = 0.001
acq 1 f fa
2 2 1.0E+03
Fixed

Acquisition
P 2 2 2 Threshold
P P SMF
d 1.0E+02
d d

Mean
where each time step T1 = TC / 2 (where TC is the chip duration) and
where the false alarm time, Tfa, includes verification time plus time 1.0E+01
spent in false lock. In (5), the first term is the time required to test all q
possible SMF with
1 1.0E+00
code phases times a factor that includes  1 to account Accumulation
P 2
d Pd
for missing the true code phase (and recycling through all q tests again).
-22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4
The final term accounts for time spent in the false alarm state rejecting
code phases that were incorrectly accepted. In the case when Pfa is very SNR per chip (dB)
small Tfa is only slightly greater than one code cycle [5]. The final term
also includes a factor 1 Pd2 to account for recycles. Finally, the terms
Fig. 8 Acquisition Time vs SNR
-1/2 adjust for a random starting position that is, on average, at (q-1)/2.

A comparison of acquisition time for the three synchronization methods
is given in Fig. 8. In performance calculations for serial search and for
the segmented matched filter, we assumed two dwell times: 512 chips
for search and 1023 chip times for verification. The fixed threshold was
set for 0.001 probability of false alarm at each code phase test.
Evaluations were performed with 10, 25, 50 and 100 co-users which
corresponded to –10, -14, -17 and –20 dB SNR at the received chip
level. Performance results for the SMF with fixed threshold detection
can be compared with Fig. 6 in the paper by Corazza [7]. Although the
performance results are similar, it should be noted that the SMF
presented here allows for data modulation and for substantial Doppler
shift.
SEGMENTED MF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
Considerable effort has gone into the design and fabrication of a circuit
to implement the ideas presented in this paper. Since significant signal
processing is required for an effective filter length (512 chips), an all-
digital implementation of the SMF did not seem practical using current
technology. The adopted mixed-signal approach used digital elements
for storage and analog elements for signal processing such as summing
and squaring. Relative to an all-digital approach, this resulted in a
significant reduction in the required IC die area (2 mm x 2.5 mm using
a 0.5 m CMOS process). The inaccuracy of analog processing was
not significant when compared with the extremely high noise levels in
the received signal.

5

As in any mixed-signal design, a significant portion of the design effort
is aimed at mitigating interference between signals in the digital and
analog circuitry. A common problem is digital switching noise that
couples through the substrate, power supply connections or the circuitry
itself to interfere with the analog signals. The fabricated IC was
successfully clocked beyond the target clock rate of 2 MSamples/s, and
it exhibited minimal switching noise. More details on the circuit are in
[5].
A large number of pdfs, similar to those shown in Fig. 5 have been
obtained in three different ways. The first was through theoretical
development using binomial distributions and approximations based on
the central limit theorem. The second was through computer simulation
of the signal sources and of the segmented matched filter. The third
involved measurement of a VLSI prototype of the SMF circuit. The
performance testing was carried out using the same test sequences that
were applied to a simulation model. The theoretical, simulation and test
results for the SMF agreed closely [8].
CONCLUSION
Code division multiple access (CDMA) has gained widespread
popularity in mobile communication systems. This work focused on the
challenges presented to code phase acquisition in a LEO satellite
environment that includes high levels of co-user noise and large
Doppler shift. A segmented matched filter (SMF) acquisition method
was validated with three approaches. First, a theoretical framework was
developed and calculations were made to estimate the SMF
performance. Second, these calculations were verified with simulation
of the circuit and development of circuit output pdfs. Finally, a VLSI
implementation of the SMF was designed, fabricated and tested.
Performance in CDMA code phase acquisition was determined by
measuring output pdfs with data sequences developed from a system
model.
When compared with serial search methods, the segmented matched
filter retains the ability to operate in the presence of large Doppler shift
and to withstand data modulation during the acquisition process. Since
the SMF performs correlation on a parallel basis, its operation is much
faster than the serial search method and, for the system parameters
selected here and with fixed threshold detection, the SMF method is
about 300 times faster than conventional serial search. The
accumulation and best match selection method described in this paper
offers a further improvement in acquisition time with a relatively
modest increase in hardware complexity. Accumulation is
particularly useful as the number of co-users becomes large.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was made possible with support from TRLabs, equipment
and design tools from the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation, and
funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council.
This work is an outgrowth of a project funded by Industry Canada and
the authors thank Mike Moher, formerly of the Communications
Research Center, for his guidance.
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