A direct sequence spread spectrum code acquisition circuit for wireless sensor networks

Narrow band (NB), spread spectrum (SS), and ultra wide band (UWB) are three physical layer bandwidth types used in wireless sensor networks (WSN). SS and UWB technologies have many advantages over NB, which make them preferable for WSN. Synchronisation of different nodes in a WSN is an important task that is necessary to improve cooperation and lifetime of nodes. Code acquisition is the main step of a node's time synchronisation. In this article, a pseudo noise code generator and a code acquisition circuit are proposed, designed and tested using direct sequence SS technique. To investigate the properties of the designed circuits, simulations are carried out via Xilinx Foundation Series software in the real mode. The results demonstrate excellent performance of the proposed algorithms and circuits in all realistic conditions. The code acquisition circuit proposed an adaptive testing window for single dwell serial search method. The code acquisition circuit is a clock phase free approach, thus the clock coherency step is cancelled. Moreover, clock phase difference between transmitter and receiver nodes does not mostly affect the acquisition and thus synchronisation time.