Patent ID: 7480354

Claim:
A method for performing, according to a received signal, a channel-estimation procedure and a cell-search procedure in cellular communication systems, the cell-search procedure including a first process of acquisition of a primary synchronization code, a second process for slot synchronization and identification of a group code, and a third process for identification of scrambling codes, said cell-search procedure including, in said second process, at least one first operation of correlation of said received signal with secondary synchronization codes and in said third process a second operation of correlation of said received signal with known midamble codes, said channel-estimation procedure including a third operation of correlation of at least part of said received signal with known midamble codes, said first, second, and third correlation operations being executed by sending the received signal or at least part of said received signal to an input of a correlation bank, the method comprising: sending, in a first time interval corresponding to the second process of the cell-search procedure, the received signal to said correlation bank for executing the first operation of correlation of said received signal with secondary synchronization codes; sending, in a second time interval corresponding to the third process of the cell-search procedure, at least part of the received signal to said same correlation bank for executing the second operation of correlation of said received signal with known midamble codes; and sending, in a third time interval, at least part of said received signal to said same correlation bank for executing the third operation of correlation of at least part of said received signal with known midamble codes, and obtaining channel coefficients.