Synchronization is a critical function in digital communications; its
failures may have catastrophic effects on the transmission system
performance. Furthermore, synchronization circuits comprehend such a
large part of the receiver hardware that their implementation has a
substantial impact on the overall costs. For these reasons design
engineers are particularly concerned with the development of new and
more efficient synchronization structures. Unfortunately, the advent of
digital VLSI technology has radically affected modem design rules, to a
point that most analog techniques employed so far have become totally
obsolete. Although digital synchronization methods are well established
by now in the literature, they only appear in the form of technical
papers, often concentrating on specific performance or implementation
issues. As a consequence they are hardly useful to give a unified view
of an otherwise seemingly heterogeneous field. It is widely recognized
that a fundamental understanding of digital synchronization can only be
reached by providing the designer with a solid theoretical framework, or
else he will not know where to adjust his methods when he attempts to
apply them to new situations. The task of the present book is just to
develop such a framework.