A user equipment (UE) performs a transform domain (DFT) based method to detect the cyclic prefix (CP) length that is being used by a base station for cellular communications. The detected CP length is then used to reduce the amount of time required to complete the synchronization and cell search procedures. In particular, the UE uses the detected CP length information to obtain Cell Identification parameters (NID1, NID2) along with information including a Maximum energy Tap location and a reference signal receive power (RSRP) while completing the synchronization and cell search procedures.