Patent ID: 7082174

Claim:
A method for processing one or more signals in a spread spectrum communication system, the method comprising: receiving and processing the one or more signals to provide one or more streams of samples; first processing the one or more streams of samples to provide a first stream of recovered symbols, wherein first processing comprises: equalizing the one or more streams of samples with an equalizer to generate symbol estimates, wherein equalizing comprises quantizing the symbol estimates, and processing the symbol estimates to provide the first stream of recovered symbols, comprising: despreading the symbol estimates with a PN sequence to generate despread symbols, and decovering the despread symbols to generate the first stream of recovered symbols; wherein despreading and decovering are selectively performed, depending on a data rate of the one or more received signals; second processing a multipath of the one or more streams of samples with one or more rake receivers to provide a second stream of recovered symbols; estimating a signal quality associated with each of the first and second processing; and selecting the first or second processing based on estimated signal qualities associated therewith.