A serial-parallel FFT correlator for PN code acquisition from LEO satellites

A new receiver architecture for PN code acquisition of signals with high Doppler shifts is proposed, in which the partially correlated outputs of the parallel section of a serial-parallel correlator (SPC) are subject to an FFT process before being summed by the serial section. In this way a wider range of frequencies can be searched in a single dwell time, which is particularly useful in a LEOS channel due to the high Doppler shifts involved. The performance in terms of mean acquisition time is shown to be better over a wider bandwidth than either serial or parallel correlators