Carrier detection for a wireless local area network

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a local area network station employing spread spectrum coding for data transmission, wherein a fast and reliable carrier detection is achieved.
Therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a local area network station for receiving data symbols encoded in a spread spectrum code and transmitted over a wireless channel, comprising: an analog-to-digital conversion means to provide a digital representation of a received signal; correlator means coupled to said analog-to-digital conversion means to provide a plurality of signal samples; integrator and storage means including a plurality of storage registers to store value of integrated representations of said plurality of signal samples; peak determining means to determine the maximum value stored in said plurality of storage registers; total value determining means to determine the total value of the values stored in said plurality of storage registers; spike quality determining means to provide a quality value signal representative of the quality of said received signal, with said quality being dependent upon said maximum value and said total value; and carrier detection means responsive to said quality value signal to provide a carrier detect signal.
In another aspect of the invention, in an apparatus for receiving a signal representing data symbols encoded in a spread spectrum code, and transmitted over a wireless communication channel, there is provided method for processing the received signal, including the steps of: (a) converting the received signal to a digital representation; (b) correlating said digital representation to provide a plurality of signal samples; (c) averaging said signal samples; (d) determining a peak value and a total value for the averaged signal samples; and (e) determining a spike quality value based on said peak value and said total value.
A feature of the preferred embodiment is that the carrier detect signal can be utilized to select an antenna in an antenna diversity system where two antennas are provided