Patent ID: 8184748

Claim:
A method for use in decoding data contained within a signal, the signal comprising a set of slots, at least one of said slots comprising a preamble portion and a payload and/or synchronisation word portion and being transmitted at a predetermined transmission frequency, the preamble portion comprising at least a first sequence of data and a second sequence of data, the second sequence being the inverse of the first sequence, the method comprising: performing a first process to derive timing data and to identify a transition between said first and second sequences of data from the preamble portion; and performing a second process to extract information from the payload and/or synchronisation word portion using said timing data, the second process being triggered on the basis of the identification of the transition by the first process, in which the first process comprises: performing an accumulation on a filtered component of the preamble portion; identifying the transition point between said first and second sequences of data on the basis of the accumulation; and deriving said timing data on the basis of a phase associated with demodulation of at least part of said preamble portion.