A simple measurement method to determine the burst acquisition time of digital systems

In certain applications, such as in the wireless field, the synchronization time is crucial to the transmission of data. For instance, in a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FH-SS) system, the carrier frequency is constantly changing. The receiver must be able to resynchronize every time and the faster it can, the higher the effective data rate becomes. To maintain a high-quality transmission, this resynchronization time must be kept to a minimum. A cost-efficient solution for measuring fast and ultrafast synchronization-caused bit errors is disclosed. This invention enables the user to modify conventional test instruments and to eliminate the need to obtain very expensive test equipment. Our new instrumentation implementation concept comprises a gated switch added to a pseudorandom bit sequence generator and analyzer. The synchronization time of a couple of circuits is tested