Patent ID: 8731076

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving from different endpoints, respectively, a plurality of communications signals over a plurality of different communications channels, each of the communications signals having a symbol period over which a symbol is transmitted, wherein each of the different endpoints is assigned a different symbol period during which symbols are transmitted; for each communications channel, determining symbol period end times for the communications signals received over the communications channels, each symbol period end time being determined based on a symbol period for the communications signals received over the communications channel and a reference time; determining that a present time is coincident with an end of a sample period for the communications signals, the sample period being a period that does not exceed a minimum symbol period for the communications signals; determining that an end of the symbol period for the communications signals being received over at least one of the communications channels is coincident with the present time; providing data representing a symbol received over each communications channel for which an end of the symbol period is coincident with the present time; determining the sample period using the symbol periods for the communications signals; and wherein determining the sample period comprises: identifying a shortest symbol period for the communications signals; and selecting the sample period to be a divisor of the shortest symbol period and all other sample periods for the communications signals received over any of the plurality of communications channels.