Patent ID: 7012972

Claim:
In a system comprising a subscriber (sub) carrier tracking loop and a hub carrier tracking loop, said hub carrier tracking loop comprising a burst modem, said sub carrier tracking loop comprising a burst modem, a method for resolving phase equivocation in a set of incoming symbols being received by said sub carrier tracking loop, said set of incoming symbols being transmitted from said hub carrier tracking loop; said method comprising the steps of: (A) acquiring a phase and a frequency of a hub carrier frequency by utilizing said sub carrier tracking loop; (B) estimating an instant absolute frequency offset between a received symbol point and a corresponding plant point; (C) averaging said instant absolute frequency offset over a plurality of received symbols; (D) storing said averaged estimated frequency offset in a frequency register of said sub carrier tracking loop; (E) locking said sub carrier tracking loop on said hub carrier frequency by compensating for said stored averaged estimated frequency offset; (F) estimating an instant absolute phase error between a received symbol point and a corresponding plant point; (G) averaging said instant absolute phase error over a plurality of received symbols; (H) resolving phase equivocation by adjusting said averaged absolute phase error, if said averaged absolute phase error is at least equal to a predetermined equivocation phase threshold; and (I) completing the tracking of said hub carrier frequency by said locked sub carrier tracking loop.