Method of and apparatus for pilot channel acquisition

DETAILED DESCRIPTION What is claimed is: 1.
A method of acquiring a pilot channel in a Code-Division Multiple Access system, the method comprising the steps of: setting an early detection threshold (EDT) parameter to a first value; determining a pilot strength of an active pilot channel; determining whether the active pilot channel's pilot strength is less than the first value; re-setting the EDT parameter to a second value when the active pilot channel's pilot strength is not less than the first threshold value; determining whether there is at least one neighbor pilot channel in a neighbor set; and sweeping the at least one neighbor pilot channel when there is at least one neighbor pilot channel, the step of sweeping the at least one neighbor pilot channel including the substeps of, performing a correlation at a particular chip offset of the at least one neighbor pilot channel, determining a pilot strength at an early detection correlation length at the particular chip offset, determining whether the pilot strength at the early detection correlation length is less than the EDT parameter, and terminating the correlation at the particular chip offset when the pilot strength at the early detection correlation length is less than the EDT parameter; assigning a finger receiver to the at least one neighbor pilot channel; re-determining the pilot strength of the active pilot channel; re-determining the pilot strength of the at least one neighbor pilot channel that has a finger receiver assigned; and handing off to the at least one neighbor pilot channel that has a finger receiver assigned when the re-determined pilot strength of the at least one neighbor pilot channel that has a finger receiver assigned is greater than the re-determined pilot strength of the active pilot channel.
2.
The method of claim 1 wherein the second value is greater than the first value.
3.
The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a pilot strength of an active pilot channel includes the substep of determining the active pilot's short-term average E