Patent ID: 7272169

Claim:
In a code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system having a plurality of channels with different data rates, a method comprising the steps of: receiving modulated information transmitted at an initial spreading rate over a channel correlating sequential segments of the transmitted information, each sequential segment corresponding to a correlation lag, against a plurality of time-multiplexed correlation patterns with a basic spreading factor to generate correlation values over a correlation window; demodulating for each sequential segment of the transmitted information the correlation values such that: (i) where the correlated values include correlated pilot segments, selecting multipath peaks in a received multipath power profile from the correlated pilot segments; (ii) where the correlated values include correlated data segments, selecting correlated data segments that correspond to the selected multipath peaks of the multipath power profile and combining the selected data segments to generate a respective set of outputs; and recovering the transmitted information by summing the set of outputs to generate a combined output.