The dwell time in GNSS is the time required to test for the presence of a satellite signal for a certain combination of parameters. [1] A search process detects whether a GNSS satellite is present or not in an area of the sky, based on correlation of a received signal with a reference signal stored in the receiver.
The dwell times are associated with the performance of a certain detector. They can be classified into single dwell times, when the decision is taken in one step, and multiple dwell times, [2] when the decision is taken in two or more steps.