TECHNIQUES FOR SYNCHRONIZING TO A SWITCHING SATELLITE.
Abstract
The synchronization procedure is separated into three distinct steps comprising the coarse search mode, the fine adjustment mode and the tracking mode. The coarse search mode is used to provide an initial estimate of the timing relationship between the ground station time base and the satellite sync window. Once this has been achieved, the fine adjustment mode serves to adjust the ground station time base in discrete steps until the timing error is small. Finally, the tracking mode provides a means of locking the ground station time base to the satellite sync window thus producing a feedback control loop.