Performance Analysis of a Digital Acquisition Circuit for DS/FH Spread Spectrum Signals

Fast acquisition is the major challenge for DS (direct sequence)/FH (frequency hopping) spread spectrum system. A DS/FH acquisition circuit which implements a digital noncoherent correlation scheme is studied extensively. The closed-form expressions of the mean acquisition time by single dwell decision and two-dwell decision are obtained with the state diagram respectively. The results show that, in the circumstance of low signal noise ratio (SNR), the approach of two-dwell decision performs better than the approach of single dwell decision.