Patent ID: 7336643

Claim:
A TDMA communications apparatus in which a plurality of slots are allocated in each frame, each slot constituting a unit of data exchanged in TDMA communication, said TDMA communications apparatus comprising: a slot timing generating counter for generating a slot timing signal for establishing synchronization of communication; and a controller for adjusting a count value of said slot timing generating counter; wherein said controller sets as operation mode of said apparatus other station synchronization mode which includes: coarse adjustment mode in which said controller obtains generally correct slot timing of a signal received from specific one of other stations and sets the hypothetically correct slot timing in said slot timing generating counter if a specific code which allows recognition of slot positions within the received signal is detected when the received signal strength of the signal received from said specific station is equal to or larger than a specific value; verification mode in which said controller verifies whether data of individual slots are correctly received for a specific period of time in the coarse adjustment mode; and fine adjustment mode in which, upon verifying that the data of the individual slots are correctly received in the verification mode, said controller continuously fine-adjusts the count value of said slot timing generating counter so as to track the signal from said specific station using it as a tracking station; and wherein said controller selects the coarse adjustment mode when verification of the data of the individual slots can not be made in the verification mode or when said controller fails to continue tracking of the signal from said specific station in the fine adjustment mode.