Matched Filter-Autocorrelation (MF-AC) for Packet Detection in Multipath Channels

In the present study, we investigate burst packet detection in multipath environment. Conventional detectors either cannot collect multipath energy, or combine too much noise when collecting it. Thus, they suffer performance degradation. A cascaded matched filter-autocorrelation (MF-AC) detector is proposed to address this problem. By exploiting a MF, the multipath energy is first converged within a small window equal to the multipath delay spread; subsequently, the autocorrelator combines the multipath energy within this window. Therefore, the combination window is shortened, and the combined noise is reduced. Performance comparisons show that MF-AC achieves a significantly better performance than the conventional detectors, with the superiority depending on the multipath delay spread.