Adaptive synchronization arrangement

An apparatus comprising:

• first operating unit having its operations synchronized with first timing signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase;
• second operating unit having its operations synchronized with second timing signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• third operating unit for interfacing the operations of the first unit with the operations of the second unit and having its operations synchronized with third timing signals having the nominal frequency and a third phase offset by an adjustably fixed amount from the first phase;
• means for determining whether the third phase falls outside of a predetermined range of allowed offset from the second phase;
• and
• means responsive to a determination that the third phase falls outside of the predetermined range, for adjusting the fixed offset of the third phase from the first phase to move the third phase within the range.

A communications system comprising:

• a first unit for receiving incoming communication traffic at times dictated by first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase;
• a second unit for transmitting incoming communication traffic at times dictated by second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units by transmitting to the first unit incoming communication traffic received from the second unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a third phase that is offset by an adjustable fixed amount from the first phase;
• first means for determining whether the third unit receives incoming communication traffic from the second unit within predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the third unit of the received incoming communication traffic;
• and
• second means responsive to a determination that receptions of the incoming communication traffic at the third unit fall outside of the windows for either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of the third phase from the first phase to move the receptions into the windows.

A communications system comprising:

• a first unit for transmitting outgoing communication traffic at times dictated by first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase;
• a second unit for transmitting outgoing communication traffic at times dictated by second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units by transmitting to the second unit outgoing communication traffic received from the first unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed amount from the first phase;
• first means for determining whether the second unit receives outgoing communication traffic from the third unit within predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the second unit of the received outgoing communication traffic;
• and
• second means responsive to a determination that receptions of the outgoing communication traffic at the second unit fall outside of the windows for either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of the third phase from the first phase to move the receptions into the windows.

A communications system comprising:

• a first unit for transmitting outgoing communication traffic and receiving incoming communication traffic at times dictated by first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase;
• a second unit for transmitting received incoming and outgoing communication traffic at times dictated by second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units by transmitting to the second unit outgoing communication traffic received from the first unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed first amount from the first phase, and by transmitting to the first unit incoming communication traffic received from the second unit at times dictated by fourth clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a fourth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed second amount from the first phase;
• first means for determining whether the second unit receives outgoing communication traffic from the third unit within first predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the second unit of the received outgoing communication traffic;
• second means for determining whether the third unit receives incoming communication traffic from the second unit within second predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the third unit of the received incoming communication traffic;
• third means responsive to a determination that either receptions of the outgoing communication traffic at the second unit fall outside of the first windows or receptions of the incoming communication traffic at the third unit fall outside of the second windows for either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of either the third phase or the fourth phase from the first phase to move the receptions that fall outside of their corresponding windows into the corresponding windows.

A call-traffic processing apparatus for a cellular radio-telephone system that includes the apparatus, at least one cell each for transmitting first packets containing first frames of coded incoming call traffic received from a radio telephone to the apparatus and for transmitting to the radio telephone outgoing call traffic received from the apparatus in second packets containing second frames of coded outgoing call traffic, and a mobile-telephone switching system for interconnecting cells with each other and with a telephone network by routing a first digital stream of cells with each other and with a telephone network by routing a first digital stream of incoming call traffic received from the apparatus to a destination and by routing a second digital stream of outgoing call traffic received from a source to the apparatus, and wherein the first and the second digital streams are synchronized with first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase and derived from the telephone network and the transmissions of the incoming and the outgoing call traffic by the cell are synchronized with second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase that is different from and fluctuates with respect to the first phase, the call-traffic processing apparatus comprising:

• outgoing vocoder means for receiving the second digital stream of outgoing call traffic synchronously with the first clock signals, coding the received outgoing call traffic, and transmitting second frames of the coded outgoing call traffic synchronously with third clock signals having the nominal frequency and a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed first amount from the first phase,
• incoming vocoder means for receiving first frames of the coded incoming call traffic synchronously with fourth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a fourth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed second amount from the first phase, decoding the received incoming call traffic, and transmitting the second digital stream of incoming call traffic synchronously with the first clock signals;
• outgoing processing means for receiving the second frames of the coded outgoing call traffic from the outgoing vocoder means, packetizing the received second frames into the second packets, and transmitting the second packets to the cell synchronously with fifth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a fifth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed third amount from the first phase;
• incoming processing means for receiving the first packets from the cell, depacketizing the received first packets into the first frames, and transmitting the first frames to the incoming vocoder means synchronously with sixth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a sixth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed fourth amount from the first phase;
• clock signal generating means for deriving the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth clock signals from the first clock signals;
• first means for determining whether the incoming processing means receive the first packets within first predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission of the first frames by the incoming processing means to the incoming vocoder means;
• second means for determining whether the cell receives the second packets within second predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the cell of the received outgoing call traffic to the mobile telephone;
• and
• third means responsive to a determination that either receptions of the first packets fall outside of the first windows or receptions of the second packets fall outside of the second windows for causing the clock signal generating means to either increase or decrease the amounts of the offsets of either both the third and the fifth phases or both the fourth and the sixth phases, with respect to the first phase, to move the packet receptions that fall outside of their corresponding windows into the corresponding windows.

A method of operating an apparatus that comprises a first operating unit, a second operating unit, and a third operating unit for interfacing the operations of the first unit with the operations of the second unit, the method comprising the steps of:

• synchronizing operations of the first operating unit with first clock signals;
• synchronizing operations of the second operating unit with second clock signals which are asynchronous with the first clock signals;
• nominally synchronizing operations of the third unit with the operations of the first unit;
• monitoring an extent of asynchrony between the operations of the second and the third units, to determine whether the extent of asynchrony lies outside of a predetermined range of allowed asynchrony;
• and
• adjusting the synchronization of the operations of the third unit with the operations of the first unit, in response to a determination that the extent of asynchrony does lie outside of the predetermined range, to move the extent of asynchrony between the operations of the second and the third units to within the range.

A method of operating a communications system comprising a first unit for transmitting incoming communications, a second unit for receiving incoming communications, and a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units, the method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting incoming communication traffic from the first unit at times dictated by first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase different from and fluctuating with respect to a second phase;
• receiving the transmitted incoming communication traffic at the third unit;
• transmitting from the third unit to the second unit incoming communication traffic received from the first unit at times dictated by second clock signals having nominal frequency and having a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed amount from the second phase;
• receiving incoming communication traffic transmitted from the third unit at the second unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and the second phase;
• determining whether the third unit receives incoming communication traffic from the first unit within predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the third unit of the received incoming communication traffic;
• and
• either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of the third phase from the second phase, in response to a determination that receptions of the incoming communication traffic at the third unit fall outside of the windows, to move the receptions into the windows.

A method of operating a communications system comprising a first unit for transmitting communications, a second unit for receiving outgoing communications, and a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units, the method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting outgoing communication traffic from the first unit at times dictated by the first clock signals having nominal frequency and a first phase;
• receiving at the third unit the outgoing communication traffic transmitted by the first unit;
• transmitting from the third unit to the second unit outgoing communication traffic received from the first unit at times dictated by second clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a second phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed amount from the first phase;
• receiving at the second unit the outgoing communication traffic transmitted by the third unit;
• transmitting outgoing communication traffic from the second unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and a third phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• determining whether the second unit receives outgoing communication traffic from the third unit within predetermined windows of the time prior to the times of transmission by the second unit of the received outgoing communication traffic;
• and
• either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of the second phase from the first phase, in the response to a determination that receptions of the outgoing communication traffic at the second unit fall outside of the windows, to move the receptions into the windows.

A method of operating a communications system comprising a first unit for transmitting outgoing communication traffic and receiving incoming communication traffic, a second unit for transmitting received incoming and outgoing communication traffic, and a third unit for interfacing communications between the first and the second units, the method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting outgoing communication traffic from the first unit and receiving incoming communication traffic at the first unit at times dictated by first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase;
• transmitting received incoming and outgoing communication traffic from the second unit at times dictated by the second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase different from and fluctuating with respect to the first phase;
• receiving at the third unit the outgoing communication traffic transmitted by the first unit;
• transmitting from the third unit to the second unit outgoing communication traffic received from the first unit at times dictated by third clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed first amount from the first phase;
• receiving at the third unit the incoming communication traffic transmitted by the second unit;
• transmitting from the third unit to the first incoming communication traffic received from the second unit at times dictated by fourth clock signals having the nominal frequency and having a fourth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed second amount from the first phase;
• determining whether the second unit receives outgoing communication traffic from the unit within first predetermined windows of the time prior to the times of transmission by the second unit of the received outgoing communication traffic;
• determining whether the third unit receives incoming communication traffic from the second unit within second predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the third unit of the received incoming communication traffic;
• and
• either increasing or decreasing the amount of the offset of either the third phase or the fourth phase from the first phase, in response to a determination that either receptions of the outgoing communication traffic at the second unit fall outside of the first windows or receptions of the incoming communication traffic at the third unit fall outside of the second windows, to move the receptions that fall outside of their corresponding windows into the corresponding windows.

A method of processing call traffic in an interface arrangement of a cellular radio-telephone system that includes the arrangement, at least one cell each for transmitting first packets containing first frames of coded incoming call traffic received from a radio telephone to the arrangement and for transmitting to the radio telephone outgoing call traffic received from the arrangement in second packets containing second frames of coded outgoing call traffic, and a mobile-telephone switching system for interconnecting cells with each other and with a telephone network by routing a first digital stream of incoming call traffic received from the arrangement to a destination and by routing a second digital stream of outgoing call traffic received from a source to the arrangement and wherein the first and the second digital streams are synchronized with first clock signals having a nominal frequency and a first phase and derived from the telephone network and the transmissions of the incoming and the outgoing call traffic by the cell are synchronized with second clock signals having the nominal frequency and a second phase that is different from and fluctuates with respect to the first phase, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving the second digital stream of outgoing call traffic synchronously with the first clock signals;
• coding the received outgoing call traffic;
• transmitting second frames of the coded outgoing call traffic synchronously with third clock signals having the nominal frequency and a third phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed first amount from the first phase;
• receiving the second frames of the coded outgoing call traffic;
• packetizing the received second frames into the second packets;
• transmitting the second packets to the cell synchronously with fifth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a fifth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed third amount from the first phase;
• receiving the first packets from the cell;
• depacketizing the received first packets into the first frames;
• transmitting the first frames synchronously with sixth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a sixth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed fourth amount from the first phase;
• receiving the first frames of coded incoming call traffic synchronously with fourth clock signals having the nominal frequency and a fourth phase that is offset by an adjustably fixed second amount from the first phase;
• decoding the received incoming call traffic;
• transmitting the second digital stream of incoming call traffic synchronously with the first clock signals;
• determining whether the interface arrangement receives the first packets within first predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission of the first frames by the interface arrangement;
• determining whether the cell receives the second packets within second predetermined windows of time prior to the times of transmission by the cell of the received outgoing call traffic to the mobile telephone;
• and
• either increasing or decreasing the amounts of the offsets of either both the third and the fifth phases or both the fourth and the sixth phases, with respect to the first phase, in response to a determination that either receptions of the first packets fall outside of the first windows or receptions of the second packets fall outside of the second windows, to move the packet receptions that fall outside of their corresponding windows into the corresponding windows.