State transition assisted DSSS code synchronization

Rapid code phase synchronization is a difficult challenge for direct sequence spread spectrum systems that utilize long spreading codes. Current synchronization techniques have been limited to either exhaustive search over the spreading code time-frequency uncertainty region, or various ad hoc techniques, which work only at high signal to noise ratios. This paper presents an entirely new approach to the code acquisition problem based on the adaptation of convolutional decoding techniques. The method is denoted STARS for state transition assisted receiver/synchronizer. STARS is much faster than the traditional code search process, and can operate at very low signal to noise ratios