Patent ID: 8064497

Claim:
A method of receiving digital data symbols from at least two transmitters through a transmission channel of a communications network, in which individual multipath components of a transmitted data symbol are received with individual delays, and wherein received signals are processed by a RAKE unit having a number of fingers, the method comprising the step of providing a delay profile for each transmitter from a set of received pilot signals; said delay profile being generated from results of at least one path search and indicating a magnitude of received signal level for each of a first number of delay values, the method further comprising the steps of: associating a counter with each of said transmitters; incrementing the counter associated with a given transmitter by one each time a frame of digital data symbols has been received from the given transmitter, until the counter reaches a maximum counter value; requesting a path search to be performed for the given transmitter, when the associated counter reaches a first pre-defined value; listing path search requests in a first-in-first-out queue; activating path searches in the order they are listed in the first-in-first-out queue; decreasing the counter associated with a transmitter by a second pre-defined value when a path search for that transmitter is activated; and calculating by interpolation estimated magnitudes of received signal level for a second number of delay values located between at least some of said first number of delay values; providing a combined delay profile by combining the magnitudes of received signal level for said first number of delay values and said second number of delay values; determining delay values for peaks detected in said combined delay profile; selecting a number of peak delay values among the peak delay values determined for said combined delay profile, said selected peak delay values comprising at least the delay value representing the largest peak detected in said combined delay profile; and providing at least some of the selected peak delay values to the RAKE unit and assigning each provided peak delay value to a finger of the RAKE unit.