Chapter 8 – Synchronization

In every digital communication system, some level of synchronization is required, without which a reliable transmission of information is not possible. Of various synchronization levels, the focus of this chapter is on symbol synchronization and carrier recovery. The role of the former is to provide the receiver with an accurate estimate of the beginning and ending times of the symbols and the latter aims to replicate a sinusoidal carrier at the receiver whose phase is the same as that sent by the transmitter. Due to the fact that carrier frequency is much higher than the symbol rate, these two types of synchronization are done with different circuitry.