Improving the decoding of m-sequences by exploiting their decimation property

M-sequences are widely used in communications and positioning systems for synchronization purposes. In these systems, the receiver does not know which sequence is used by the transmitter, this needs to be detected. This paper establishes first a link between the conventional detection theory and the recently developed detection technique relying on iterative message-passing algorithm. Then, a novel decoding strategy is proposed. It exploits the decimation property of m-sequences to improve significantly the detection performance compared to the existing decoding strategy.