Patent ID: 7042862

Claim:
A method of searching for a path, comprising: a first interpolating step of interpolating a demodulated signal to generate a first interpolated signal; a first selecting step of generating a first selected signal by alternatively selecting said first interpolated signal or said demodulated signal based on interpolation information, said interpolation information indicating whether an interpolation process for reducing a chip interval is to be performed or not between processes for generating a delay profile which indicates a temporal change of reception time instants of said demodulated signal due to multipath fading; a correlation value calculating step of calculating a correlation value between a pilot pattern which is included in said first selected signal and has a predetermined fixed pattern and a predetermined expected value; a second interpolating step of interpolating the correlation value calculated in said correlation value calculating step to generate a second interpolated signal; a second selecting step of generating a second selected signal by alternatively selecting said second interpolated signal and said correlation value based on said interpolation information; an in-phase adding step of adding in-phase components of said second selected signal for a predetermined number of times; a third interpolating step of interpolating an in-phase addition sum calculated in said in-phase adding step to generate a third interpolated signal; a third selecting step of generating a third selected signal by alternatively selecting said third interpolated signal or said in-phase addition sum based on said interpolation information; a power adding step of adding power values calculated from signal components of said third selected signal for a predetermined number of times; a fourth interpolating step of interpolating a power addition sum calculated in said power adding step to generate a fourth interpolated signal; a fourth selecting step of generating a fourth selected signal by alternatively selecting said fourth interpolated signal or said power addition sum based on said interpolation information; and a path detecting step of detecting a path in excess of a predetermined threshold based on said fourth selected signal.