Method and system for estimating the speed of a mobile device in a network

1. A method for estimating the speed of a mobile device in a network, comprising:

selecting, electronically within a speed estimation pilot correlator, a correlation length from a plurality of possible correlation lengths;

generating, electronically within the speed estimation pilot correlator, a correlation result based on the selected correlation length by accumulating a specified number of demodulated pilot symbols, the specified number based on the selected correlation length; and

generating a speed estimate for the mobile device based on the correlation result.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a correlation result based on the selected correlation length comprises correlating a pilot pseudorandom code with an input signal using the selected correlation length, the method further comprising:

receiving the input signal from a base station, the input signal comprising pilot signals, the pilot signals comprising bits corresponding to pilot symbols; and

receiving the pilot pseudorandom code corresponding to the base station.

3. The method of claim 2 , the correlation result comprising demodulated pilot symbols, generating the speed estimate for the mobile device based on the correlation result comprising:

computing a specified number of values of a power spectrum for the demodulated pilot symbols; and

generating the speed estimate for the mobile device based on the specified number of computed values.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the correlation length from a plurality of possible correlation lengths comprises selecting a maximum correlation length that meets at least one predetermined criterion.

5. The method of claim 4 , the correlation result comprising demodulated pilot symbols, the predetermined criterion comprising a maximum of 0.4 for a normalized upper corner frequency of a power spectral density for the demodulated pilot symbols.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of possible correlation lengths are in the range of 2560 to 40960.

7. A system for estimating the speed of a mobile device in a network, comprising a speed estimation pilot correlator operable to (a) select a correlation length from a plurality of possible correlation lengths, (b) using the selected correlation length, generate a correlation result for use in estimating the speed of the mobile device, and (c) generate the correlation result by accumulating a plurality of demodulated pilot symbols.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:

a power spectrum unit coupled to the speed estimation pilot correlator, the power spectrum unit operable to receive the accumulated demodulated pilot symbols from the speed estimation pilot correlator and to compute a specified number of values of a power spectrum for the accumulated demodulated pilot symbols; and

a speed estimation element coupled to the power spectrum unit, the speed estimation element operable to receive the specified number of calculated values from the power spectrum unit and to generate a speed estimate for the mobile device based on the specified number of calculated values.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a length generator coupled to the speed estimation element, the length generator operable to receive the speed estimate from the speed estimation element and to calculate an averaging length based on the speed estimate.

10. The system of claim 7 , the speed estimation pilot correlator operable to select the correlation length from a plurality of possible correlation lengths by selecting a maximum correlation length that meets at least one predetermined criterion.

11. The system of claim 10 , the predetermined criterion comprising a maximum of 0.4 for a normalized upper corner frequency of a power spectral density for the demodulated pilot symbols.