Process and device for estimating the speed of movement of a mobile terminal, in particular a cellular mobile telephone capable of operating according to the UMTS standard

1. A process for estimating a speed of movement of a mobile terminal operating in a wireless communication system and communicating with a base station via a transmission channel, the process comprising:

estimating fading of the transmission channel;

performing an autocorrelation on the fading for providing a first autocorrelation result, the autocorrelation being performed over a duration corresponding to a minimum speed of movement of the mobile terminal that is to be estimated, the autocorrelation being a normalized autocorrelation of at least one fading coefficient, with the first autocorrelation result being a vector having a chosen length;

calculating a plurality of reference autocorrelation results for a plurality of predetermined values of speed of movement of the mobile terminal, the calculating being based upon a predetermined autocorrelation function performed on the fading, wherein the plurality of reference autocorrelation results are also vectors having the same length resulting from a normalized autocorrelation of the at least one fading coefficient using the known autocorrelation function;

comparing the first autocorrelation result to the plurality of reference autocorrelation results; and

estimating the speed of movement of the mobile terminal based upon the comparing.

2. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the autocorrelation comprises a Bessel function of the first type and of order zero.

3. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile terminal and the wireless communication system operate in accordance with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard.

4. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile terminal comprises a cellular telephone.

5. A process according to claim 1 , further comprising storing the calculated plurality of reference autocorrelation results in a memory.

6. A process for estimating a speed of movement of a cellular telephone comprising:

estimating fading of a transmission channel;

performing an autocorrelation on the fading for providing a first autocorrelation result, the autocorrelation being performed over a duration corresponding to a minimum speed of movement of the cellular telephone that is to be estimated, the autocorrelation is a normalized autocorrelation of at least one fading coefficient, with the first autocorrelation result being a vector having a chosen length;

calculating a plurality of reference autocorrelation results for a plurality of predetermined values of speed of movement of the cellular telephone, the plurality of reference autocorrelation results are calculated based upon a predetermined autocorrelation function performed on the fading, and wherein the plurality of reference autocorrelation results are also vectors having the same length resulting from a normalized autocorrelation of the at least one fading coefficient using the predetermined autocorrelation function;

comparing the first autocorrelation result to the plurality of reference autocorrelation results; and

estimating the speed of movement of the cellular telephone based upon the comparing.

7. A process according to claim 6 , wherein the autocorrelation comprises a Bessel function of the first type and of order zero.

8. A process according to claim 6 , wherein the mobile terminal and the wireless communication system operate in accordance with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard.

9. A process according to claim 6 , wherein the mobile terminal comprises a cellular telephone.

10. A process according to claim 6 , further comprising storing the calculated plurality of reference autocorrelation results in a memory.

11. A device for estimating a speed of movement of a mobile terminal operating in a wireless communication system and communicating with a base station via a transmission channel, said device comprising

channel estimation means for estimating fading of the transmission channel;

first autocorrelation means for performing an autocorrelation of the fading for obtaining a first autocorrelation result, the first autocorrelation means performing a normalized autocorrelation of at least one fading coefficient with the first autocorrelation result being a vector having a chosen length;

a memory for storing a plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results for a plurality of predetermined values of speed of movement of the mobile terminal, the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results being calculated based upon a predetermined autocorrelation function performed on the fading, the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results are also vectors having the same length resulting from a normalized autocorrelation of the at least one fading coefficient using the predetermined autocorrelation function;

comparison means for comparing the first autocorrelation result to the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results; and

speed estimation means for estimating the speed of movement of the mobile terminal based upon the comparing.

12. A device according to claim 11 , wherein the autocorrelation comprises a Bessel function of the first type and of order zero.

13. A device according to claim 11 , wherein the mobile terminal comprises a cellular telephone.

14. A device according to claim 11 , wherein the mobile terminal and the wireless communication system operate in accordance with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

15. A device according to claim 11 , wherein the device is included within the mobile terminal.

16. A mobile terminal comprising:

an analog stage; and

a digital stage connected to said analog stage for estimating a speed of movement of the cellular telephone by

estimating fading of a transmission channel,

performing an autocorrelation of the fading for obtaining a first autocorrelation result, the autocorrelation performing a normalized autocorrelation of at least one fading coefficient with the first autocorrelation result being a vector having a chosen length,

comparing the first autocorrelation result to a plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results, the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results being calculated based upon a predetermined autocorrelation function performed on the fading, the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results are also vectors having the same length resulting from a normalized autocorrelation of the at least one fading coefficient using the predetermined autocorrelation function, and

estimating the speed of movement of the mobile terminal based upon the comparing.

17. A mobile terminal according to claim 16 , wherein said digital stage comprises a memory for storing the plurality of precalculated reference autocorrelation results.

18. A mobile terminal according to claim 16 , wherein the autocorrelation comprises a Bessel function of the first type and of order zero.

19. A mobile terminal according to claim 16 , wherein the mobile terminal and the wireless communication system operate in accordance with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

20. A mobile terminal according to claim 16 , further comprising an antenna connected to said analog stage.

21. A process for estimating a speed of movement of a mobile terminal operating in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) type wireless communication system and communicating with a base station via a multipath transmission channel, the process comprising:

estimating fading for each path of the multipath transmission channel to obtain a plurality of fading coefficients;

combining values of the plurality of fading coefficients, and weighting them by respective signal-to-noise ratios;

performing an autocorrelation on the fading for providing a first autocorrelation result, the autocorrelation being performed over a duration corresponding to a minimum speed of movement of the mobile terminal that is to be estimated;

calculating a plurality of reference autocorrelation results for a plurality of predetermined values of speed of movement of the mobile terminal, the calculating being based upon a predetermined autocorrelation function performed on the fading;

comparing the first autocorrelation result to the plurality of reference autocorrelation results; and

estimating the speed of movement of the mobile terminal based upon the comparing.

22. A process according to claim 21 , wherein the mobile terminal comprises a cellular telephone.

23. A process according to claim 21 , further comprising storing the calculated plurality of reference autocorrelation results in a memory.