Patent ID: 7940835

Claim:
A method of processing a signal emanating from a multi-path transmission medium, said method comprising the steps of: detecting echoes of the signal that is received; and performing a rejection processing comprising the sub-steps of: estimating cross-correlation between two temporally neighboring echoes; and if the cross-correlation satisfies a test, rejecting the one of the two neighboring echoes that exhibits lower energy, wherein the number of echoes detected is equal to L0, which is greater than the number N of fingers of a “Rake” receiver, the number of residual echoes arising from the rejection processing is equal to L, which is greater than N, at least some of the L residual echoes are echoes temporally correlated according to a determined correlation criterion, the method further comprises the steps of: determining, as a function of the initial complex amplitudes associated with at least the temporally correlated echoes, weighted individual energies corresponding to temporally decorrelated virtual echoes; and selecting, from among the L residual echoes, N echoes as a function of a determined power criterion that takes into account at least the weighted individual energies, the L echoes comprise L1 temporally correlated echoes, and L-L1 possible remaining far echoes, with L1 being greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to L, and the selecting step comprises first selecting according to a first selection criterion of L2 echoes from among the L1 echoes, with L2 being less than or equal to L1, determining as a function of the initial complex amplitudes of the L2 echoes of the weighted individual energies corresponding to temporally decorrelated virtual echoes, assigning these weighted individual energies to the L2 selected echoes, and selecting, from among the L2 echoes and the L-L1 far echoes, the N echoes as a function of a determined power criterion using at least the weighted individual energies and the L-L1 individual energies of the L-L1 remaining echoes.