PN Code Acquisition Using Boolean Satisfiability Techniques

In mobile radio communication systems using spread spectrum technology, an accurate estimate of the signal propagation delay is needed in order to recover the transmitted data. This process is usually done using a pseudo noise (PN) code acquisition algorithm to search for the correct propagation delay within a window of possible delays. In this paper, we propose a new approach to solving the PN code acquisition problem using advanced Boolean satisfiability (SAT) techniques. SAT solvers use intelligent search algorithms that can traverse the search space and efficiently prune parts that contain no solutions. These solvers have recently been used to solve many challenging problems in Engineering and Computer Science. In this paper, we show how to formulate the PN code acquisition problem as a SAT instance and evaluate the use of advanced SAT techniques in solving the problem. Our approach is verified by simulation and presented results indicate that the proposed system achieves a detection probability for the correct delay of almost 100% for all practical cases.