Patent ID: 7248624

Claim:
A communications apparatus, comprising; a receiver section configured to receive a signal having a plurality of bits; a synchronization module coupled to the receiver section, said synchronization module configured to compute energy for a plurality of different phase offset signal portions, generate a ratio from the signal portion with the highest computed energy and the signal portion with the second highest computed energy, and compare the ratio to a threshold to determine whether the signal portion with the highest computed energy can be used to determine bit timing; wherein each of the bits has a bit period, and each of the signal portions comprises a plurality of sub-portions, each of the sub-portions having a time period equal to the bit period, and wherein the synchronization module is further configured to determine the bit timing by synchronizing to the sub-portions of the signal portion with the highest computed energy if the ratio exceeds the threshold; and a position processor, wherein the synchronization module is further configured to synchronize to the sub-portions of the signal portion with the highest computed energy by providing a strobe to the position processor at the beginning of each of such sub-portions.