Joint phase and timing acquisition in data-transmission

This paper deals with the analysis of two different recursive methods for carrier phase and timing acquisition in synchronous data-transmission systems. The first method is a practical implementation of the maximum likelihood estimator of the phase and timing parameters; the other is based on the minimization of the mean square error at the sampling times. In both cases the steady-state performance characteristics are evaluated and the problem of the coupling between phase and timing adjustments is discussed in view of its effects upon stability and convergence rate of the synchronization algorithm. Finally, the signal design problem is addressed with the objective of simultaneously attaining adjustment decoupling, jitter minimization and intersymbol interference reduction.