Patent ID: 7200165

Claim:
A cell search method of performing a base station search to identify spreading timings of a plurality of base stations located in the vicinity of a mobile station and spreading codes used by the base stations and differing for each base station, said method comprising steps of: determining correlation values between received signals and a spreading code shared among base stations to determine a correlation value profile; detecting peak values from said correlation value profile and peak timings at the time the peak values have been detected to detect spreading timings of base stations; identifying spreading codes that differ for each base station and that are used by base stations for which spreading timings have been detected; performing a path search process to detect peak timings at the time multipath occurs using the detected spreading timings and the spreading codes that differ for each base station and that have been identified; generating an autocorrelation pattern with the center at the detected spreading timing of a base station and autocorrelation patterns with the center at the peak timings at the time multipath occurs, based on an autocorrelation pattern that has been found in advance from said spreading code shared among base stations; subtracting each of said generated autocorrelation patterns from said correlation value profile; and searching for a next base station from the correlation value profile that has undergone said subtraction.