Carrier Synchronization:

The digital communication receiver requires accurate knowledge of the frequency and phase of the
carrier in the incoming received signal. Why? The receiver has to correlate the received signal with
a locally generated carrier signal, (bank of correlators). This is the demodulation process in the
receiver. But the frequency and phase of the locally generated carrier signal must be same as the
frequency and phase of the incoming carrier signal. Why? Cos and sine waves having the same
frequency are out of phase by 90 degree. As we know, if we correlate a cos with a sine over one
period, the result is zero. The demodulation function will not take place correctly in this case since
the correlator output is zero. This is the reason why there should be agreement in frequency and
phase between the two inputs to the correlator. The process of ensuring that the locally generated
carrier signal has the same frequency and phase as the incoming received signal is called Carrier
Synchronization.

Phase-Locked Loop (PLL)

A circuit called the PLL is often used in carrier synchronization. It is a closed-loop control system
consisting of
1) Phase detector (PD) that generates the phase difference between its inputs vi(t) and vo(t).
2) Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO): It adjusts the oscillator frequency based on the phase
difference to eliminate the phase difference. At steady state, the output frequency will be exactly the
same with the input frequency.
3) Loop filter (LF) is a Lowpass Filter that smoothes the output of the PD.

v i (t )=v i sin [ω 0 t+ φ( t ) ]
¿
v o ( t )=v o cos [ ω0 t+φ (t )]

A PD contains a multiplier and a lowpass filter. The output of PD is:

¿
v d ( t )=K d sin[ φ( t )−φ ( t )]=K d sin φ e ( t )

The output of the LF is (where F(p) is the transfer function)

v c ( t )=F ( p )v d (t )
The output of VCO can be a sinusoid or a periodic impulse train.

If F(p)=1，Then
¿
dφ(t )
=K sin φe ( t )
dt

This kind of loop is called the first-order loop

In a coherence system, a PLL is used for:
PLL can track the input frequency and generate the output signal with small phase difference.
PLL has the character of narrowband filtering which can eliminate the noise introduced by
modulation and reduce the additive noise.

To extract the carrier：

Carrier synchronization can be done in 2 ways:

1. Pilot carrier method:

Sending a carrier component at specific spectral-line along with the signal component. Since the
inserted carrier component has high frequency stability, it is called pilot.

2. Direct extraction method

Directly extract the synchronization information from the received signal component.

Pilot-carrier method
－insert pilot to the modulated signal

x(t Modulato Add s(t

Bandpass
) r )
filter

-asin(ct)

cos(ct /2phas
) e shift

0
The pilot signal is generated by shifting the carrier by 90 and decreasing amplitude by
several dB, then adding to the modulated signal. The receiver uses a narrowband filter with
central frequency f to extract the pilot and then the carrier can be generated by simply
c
0
shifting 90 .

The drawback of narrowband filter is that the passband is not narrow enough, fc is fixed, cannot
tolerate any frequency drift with respect to the central frequency. The narrowband filter can be
replaced by a PLL.

Direct extraction method

1).If the spectrum of the received signal already contains carrier component, then the carrier
component can be extracted simply by a narrowband filter or a PLL.
2).If the modulated signal supresses the carrier component, then the carrier component may be
extracted by performing nonlinear transformation.

Squaring method (An example of nonlinear transformation)

s(t)---->Square-law device---->BPF at 2fc---->PLL---->Frequency divider------>Syncronized carrier

In this method, the received signal is squared first. It is then passed through a bandpass filter
centred at 2fc. The output of the BPF is given to a PLL. The PLL output is passed through a
frequency divider circuit to obtain a carrier frequency signal having frequency fc. This is the desired
synchronized carrier and is given as the input to the correlator for demodulation.

Symbol Synchronization
In a digital communication system, the output of the receiving filter must be sampled periodically at
the symbol rate and at the precise sampling time instance.
To perform this periodic sampling, we need a clock signal at the receiver
The process of extracting such a clock signal is called symbol synchronization or timing recovery
One method is for the transmitter to simultaneously transmit the clock frequency along with the
information signal. The receive can simply employ a narrowband filter or PLL to extract it. This
method requires extra power and bandwidth and hence, but frequently used in telephone
transmission systems.
Another method is to extract the clock signal from the received data signal by using some other
means. An important method in this category is the Early-late gate method.

Early-Late Gate method for Symbol Synchronization:

One method for generating a symbol timing signal at the receiver exploits the symmetry properties
of the signal at the output of the matched filter or correlator. The output of the correlator or matched
filter attains the maximum value at t = T. So, the best moment for sampling is the precise moment
when correlator output is maximum. How do we find this precise moment? Noise may be present,
and identification of the peak value of the signal is generally difficult. So instead of sampling the
signal at the peak, suppose we sample early at say, t = T – δT, and then sample late at say, t = T +
δT. Since the two sampling instants are at equal distances from the peak time t = T, the sampled
values at early sampling and late sampling must be equal. Thus if we design a circuit that looks for
a proper value of the delay δT so that early sampling and late sampling values are equal, then the
midpoint of these two sampling times will be the proper sampling time t = T. The optimum delay
δT is obtained by using a PLL circuit as shown in the diagram given below.
Frame synchronization:
Almost all digital data streams have some kind of frame structure. The date stream is organized into
uniformly sized group of bits. For a receiver to make sense of the incoming data stream, the
receiver needs to be synchronized with the data stream’s frame structure. The receiver needs to
know when the frame starts and when the frame ends. This is called frame syncronization. Frame
synchronization is usually accomplished with the help of some special signaling procedure from the
transmitter.

1) Frame marker method

Simplest method. The frame marker is a single bit or a a short pattern of bits that the transmitter
injects periodically into the data stream. The receiver must know the pattern and the interval of
injection. The receiver correlates the known pattern with the incoming data stream at the known
injection interval. If the receiver is not in synchronization with framing pattern, then the correlation
will be low. The correlation values are accumulated over multiple injection intervals to decide if
frame synchronization has been achieved. The drawback is that multiple injection intervals are
required and so it involes time delay to achieve synchronization. It is appropriate for systems like
telephone and computer links that transmit data continuously, but not suited for bursty non-
continuous transmissions.
Start-stop method:
Each symbol contains 5-8 data bits, a start bit and a stop bit.
2) Codeword method:
For bursty transmissions, the method used is the synchronization codeword. The codeword is
transmitted as part of the message preamble or header. The receiver must know the codeword and it
constantly searches the incoming data stream for this codeword using a correlator. Detection of the
codeword indicates the beginning of a data frame. The advantage of this method is that
synchronization happens immediately on detection of the codeword. The disadvantage is that the
codeword must be fairly longer than the frame marker method, and so the correlation operation also
will require more multiplication operations to be performed.

The important frame synchronization codes used are Barker codes and PN sequences. In bunched
frame alignment signal, the transmitter inserts synchronous code at a particular place in each
frame. The code should have a sharp auto-correlation function. In distributed frame
alignment method, the synchronization code is distributed in the data signal. That means
between each n bits, a synchronization bit is inserted.

n Barker code

2 ++

3 ++-

4 + + + - ，+ + - +

5 +++-+

7 +++--+-

11 +++---+--+-

13 ++++--++-+-+