A method and apparatus for transmitting or detecting primary synchronization signal. The receiver receives primary synchronization signal from a transmitter, and detects the sequence used in the received primary synchronization signal by using three root indexes. Here, the primary synchronization signal is generated by using a Zadoff-Chu sequence having one of the three root indexes. The three root indexes comprise a first index and a second index, and a sum of the first index and the second index corresponds to the length of the Zadoff-Chu sequence.