Patent ID: 7715464

Claim:
A method of detecting multipath components in time-varying fading radio channels in a digital wireless communications system in which individual multipath components of a signal transmitted through a channel are received with individual delays (T a , T b , T c ) within a range of possible delay values, and in which signals transmitted through a given channel comprise an identification code identifying that channel, the method comprising the steps of: calculating repetitively for each of a number of known channels a delay profile indicating a magnitude (Y) for each of a number of individual delay values in a search window constituting a subset of said range of possible delay values and being positioned based on at least one previously calculated delay profile for the corresponding channel; estimating from said delay profiles the delays of multipath components for each known channel; calculating from said delay profiles a signal strength indicator for each known channel; and searching at regular time intervals for new multipath components that are not already estimated from one of said delay profiles; comparing, when a new multipath component is found, the identification code of the new multipath component to the identification codes of said known channels; calculating, if the identification code of the new multipath component is identical to the identification code of one of the known channels, a delay profile and a corresponding signal strength indicator for a transposed window obtained by transposing the search window of that known channel to include said new multipath component; comparing the signal strength indicator calculated for that known channel to the signal strength indicator calculated for the transposed window, and replacing, if the signal strength indicator calculated for the transposed window is larger than the signal strength indicator calculated for that known channel multiplied by a factor, the signal strength indicator for that known channel by the signal strength indicator for the transposed window.