Patent ID: 7593738

Claim:
A signal processing method for use in processing a base transceiver station (BTS) downlink signal, comprising: acquiring a candidate time series from a received BTS downlink burst signal; correlating a frequency correction channel (FCCH) replica with a candidate broadcast control channel (BCCH) beacon signal to determine a nominal frame time alignment and time of arrival (TOA) for an FCCH burst signal; correlating a synchronization channel (SCH) extended training sequence to determine a time alignment and TOA for an SCH burst signal; attempting to demodulate the SCH burst signal; determining that the SCH demodulation is not acceptable, and in response thereto performing the following steps: obtaining A-bis monitoring system (AMS)-derived possible partial/modulo frame and associated BSIC information for the candidate BCCH signal; calibrating the AMS-derived timings to GPS-based times for possible partial/modulo frames, and using the candidate AMS-derived partial/modulo frame information to form the possible complete frame numbers (FNs) with associated reduced frame numbers (RFNs) for the SCH; applying selected BSIC and FN/RFN to form a complete SCH replica; correlating the SCH replica with a candidate BCCH signal to refine the TOA measurement for the SCH burst signal; integrating the SCH correlation with an associated FCCH correlation for a refined measurement of TOA; determining that the correlation results are acceptable and propagating a measured GPS-timebased TOA to a frame boundary, thereby determining a measured GPS-timebased TOA corresponding to a frame boundary; and forming a record of correlated BCCH carrier identification, BSIC, FN, and GPS-timebased TOA.