Cell search process for wireless communication system

1. A method of performing a continuous cell search for new cells in a wireless communication systems having a plurality of base stations and a mobile station, the method including the steps of:

(a) using a primary synchronization code to acquire slot synchronization for identified cells;

(b) using a secondary synchronization code to find frame synchronization and identify a code group of the identified cells;

(c) determining a primary scrambling code used by the identified cells; and

(d) rejecting cells corresponding to previously identified primary scrambling codes from post-processing,

wherein the method further includes the steps of:

(e) correlating slot timings identified in step (a) with frame timings corresponding to primary scrambling codes identified in previous runs of steps (b) and (c); and

(f) rejecting slot timings identified in step (a) from further processing in steps (b) and (c) when correlation detected.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein step (f) is performed on slot timings determined to have the strongest correlation in step (e).

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the slot timings having the strongest correlation in step (e) are determined by dividing by strength of correlation of each slot timing by the average of all slot timings detected to derive a slot timing signal-to-noise ratio, and comparing the ratio to a predetermined threshold.

4. A method according to claim 3 , wherein the signal-to-noise ratios exceeding the predetermined threshold are rejected in step (f).

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the correlation performed in step (e) is performed over a limited number of W-CDMA slots.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the correlation performed in step (e) and the rejection of known slot timings in step (f) are performed within the same compressed mode window or paging occasion.