A novel open-loop timing synchronization algorithm for frequency-hopping system

Frequency hopping (FH) communication system is known as an important direction of research in the field of satellite communication. Timing synchronization, as the process in which signal timing error is eliminated, serves as the basis for the realization of FH synchronization and data transmission, enabling it to be one of the key technologies of the whole system. Due to the characteristics of short frame burst possessed by the FH system, it is required that the system should complete the detection and tracking of signal timing error quickly, which requires high performance of timing synchronization. Through the improvement in the Gardner timing error detection algorithm, as well as use of the shifting of sampling position and interpolation with fixed fractional interval, there is the design of an open-loop timing synchronization algorithm with low complexity and strong real-time performance. With this algorithm, the system can have a bit error rate (BER) lower than 10^-7 and no data loss with a clock deviation of 1ppm. Experimental results demonstrate the performance of the algorithm, the algorithm ensures low complexity and no data loss during synchronization process.