Fast detection of a selected portion of a data packet (e.g. the preamble of a Bluetooth data packet) is accomplished by defining a reference signal waveform conforming to an expected waveform representing a signal modulated in accordance with the selected portion of a data packet. A waveform representing a received data signal containing a data packet with the selected portion is derived, and the reference signal waveform is correlated with this derived waveform to produce a correlation result. This correlation result is used to identify the selected portion in the received data signal.
A method is provided for acquiring incoming signals in a wireless network device. This method uses three different types of preamble: a normal preamble, a short preamble, and a long preamble. One of these preambles will be used as a default preamble. Then, depending upon signal parameters, the device can change from one preamble to another, trading off data transmission speed and acquisition time to achieve the maximum data transmission speed by using the minimum acquisition time. These signal parameters could be signal strength, the number of packet retransmissions the device must request, or any other metric that is required. And thresholds will vary with the quality of service.
