Timing recovery for magnetic recording using cross correlation

This paper demonstrates a method for performing timing recovery for digital magnetic recording systems using cross correlation. Estimates of the written data are cross correlated with the incoming samples to derive phase error information. Retimed sample values are found via interpolation using the incoming samples and phase-error information. Results are compared to the decision-directed timing-recovery method commonly found in digital magnetic recording systems and it is shown that the cross-correlation timing-recovery method yields a lower bit-error rate for the same amount of mistiming in the incoming samples.