Patent ID: 8155165

Claim:
A method of estimating a spread spectrum modulation magnitude of a spread spectrum clock base modulation signal in a communications signal comprising the steps of: a) acquiring a set of voltage samples representative of the communication signal having the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal at a nominal time location; b) converting the first set of voltage samples into time samples representing triangular modulation rate profiles for each cycle of the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal; c) determining the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the timing deviation of the triangular modulation rate profile of the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal at the first nominal time location; d) acquiring a second set of voltage samples representative of the communication signal having the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal at a second nominal time location greater than the first nominal time location; e) converting the second set of voltage samples into time samples representing triangular modulation rate profiles for each cycle of the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal; f) determining the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the timing deviation of the triangular modulation rate profile of the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal at the second nominal time location; and g) generating a spread spectrum clock magnitude number of the spread spectrum clock base modulation signal by subtracting the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the timing deviation of the triangular modulation rate profile at the first nominal value from the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the timing deviation of the triangular modulation rate profile at the second nominal value and dividing resultant number by the difference between the second and first nominal time locations of the communication signal.