Mean acquisition time for noncoherent PN sequence sequential acquisition schemes

Sequential PN code acquisition schemes have the potential to achieve the best performance, but they are the least analyzed because of the analytical difficulties. The authors have proposed and investigated (1991-92) the truncated sequential probability ratio test (TSPRT) for spread-spectrum noncoherent PN code acquisition. It was shown to be much better than the conventional fixed sample size (FSS) scheme in the average sample number (ASN) at fixed detection and false-alarm probabilities. For system design purposes, however, the mean acquisition time is more informative. This paper reports results on the mean acquisition time for the TSPRT. Numerical data that includes Rician fading effect is also presented. Results show that the proposed TSPRT is efficient, robust (against fading), fast, and suitable for real-time low-cost implementation.<>