Autocorrelation-based blind spreading-factor detection for CDMA

Spreading factor (SF) in code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems depends on the data rate of the user, and is, therefore, unknown a priori for a communication receiver. In this letter, the blind SF-detection problem in an additive white Gaussian noise channel is studied, and a novel one-step autocorrelation-based SF detector is proposed. Three decision rules are derived to find simple and robust SF detectors for practical communication receivers. Performance of the detectors is studied and compared with the optimal detector via Monte Carlo computer simulations. The autocorrelation-based SF detector appears to give performance close to the optimal detector, assuming perfect knowledge of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is also found to be significantly more robust to SNR estimation errors than the optimal detector.