Abstract: A baseband process operating on a receiver in a communication system, such as an 802.15.4 communication system, is provided. The baseband process has a set of predefined reference signals, with each reference signal associated with a possible characteristic in the baseband signal. The baseband process receives a degraded baseband signal, and preprocesses the baseband signal to reduce or remove the effects of the degradation. The preprocessed baseband signal is correlated with reference signals from the set of predefined reference signals, and the reference signal with the best correlation is identified. By identifying the best correlating reference signal, the baseband process is able to identify a characteristic of the baseband signal. In one example of the baseband process, the baseband signal is preprocessed by auto-correlating the degraded baseband signal with a delayed version of the degraded baseband signal.