Apparatus and method for tracking a phase of a pseudo-random noise (PN) sequence of a pilot signal in a mobile terminal

A method for acquiring a phase of a pseudo-random noise (PN) sequence acquired from a signal received from a base station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising the steps of:

• measuring by a first energy measurer each energy of an early path and a late path from the acquired PN sequence, the energy being first energy;
• measuring by a second energy measurer an energy of an on-time path from the acquired PN sequence, the energy being second energy;
• normalizing by a first normalizer the first energy with the second energy;
• and
• tracking a phase of the PN sequence using the normalized energy value.

An apparatus for acquiring a phase of a pseudo-random noise (PN) sequence acquired from a signal received from a base station in a mobile communication system, the apparatus comprising:

• a switch for selecting a local PN sequence generator so that energy values of an early path and a late path can be measured for the phase of the acquired PN sequence;
• a first energy measurer for calculating an energy value of a path selected by the switch;
• the local PN sequence generator for resetting an on-time path's phase using an energy difference of the selected path, generating a PN sequence having the on-time path's phase, and providing the generated PN sequence to the first energy measurer;
• a second energy measurer for measuring an energy value of an on-time path from the acquired PN sequence;
• a first normalizer for normalizing an energy measured by the first energy measurer with an energy measured by the second energy measurer;
• and
• a third energy measurer for tracking a phase of the PN sequence using the normalized energy from the first normalizer.