SYNCHRONIZATION FAILURE RATES IN MASTER-SLAVE SYNCHRONIZED PHASE-LOCKED LOOPS

Precise frequency and phase alignment between spatially separated node s is of vital general interest. A specific case is the synchronization of two nodes for which communications and tracking between ground sta tions and space vehicles represent typical applications. Statistics of cycle-slips affect the postfiltering of range and Doppler measurement s and are important for system design and performance optimizations. T his paper presents a method for computation of synchronization failure rates in master-slave phase-synchronized first order phase-locked loo ps (PLL). The method assumes (propagation) delay times long compared w ith tracking loop time constants and allows for system optimazations o f the slaved PLL in terms of improved tracking performance. The paper considers frequency turnaround ratios of phase-coherent transponders a nd discusses impacts of the converted transponder phase jitter on the tracking performance of the slaved PLL.