Rake receiver A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath fading . It does this by using several `` sub-receivers '' each delayed slightly in order to tune in to the individual multipath components . Each component is decoded independently , but at a later stage combined in order to make the most use of the different transmission characteristics of each transmission path . This could very well result in higher Signal-to-noise ratio ( or Eb/No ) in a multipath environment than in a `` clean '' environment . The rake receiver is so named because of its analogous function to a garden rake , each finger collecting bit or symbol energy similarly to how tines on a rake collect leaves . Rake receivers are common in a wide variety of CDMA and W-CDMA radio devices such as mobile phones and wireless LAN equipment . Categories : Telecommunications equipment | Wireless communications 