Abstract: The present invention describes a method of estimating the symbol time offset in a received signal of a data modem using only one received synchronization symbol. This estimate of the offset is used for a rapid synchronization during the starting phase or for resynchronization during a micro-interruption. The method estimates the offset by comparing the frequency domain constellation obtained by transforming the received synchronization symbol using the current sample pointer setting with the frequency domain constellations stored as templates. (A constellation point for a channel is phase and magnitude values in frequency domain for the channel). It chooses the template which is closest to the received constellation and declares the offset corresponding to the chosen template as the estimated offset for the received symbol. The templates are obtained by the following process.

Abstract: A signal detector for detecting the presence of a intermittent signal component in a signal. The signal detector receives each of the signal strength samples during a corresponding iteration, and compares a threshold value with the received signal sample. The signal detector sets a counter to a pre-determined number if the sample compared is greater than the threshold value. The signal detector decrements the persistence counter if a corresponding sample is not greater than the threshold value. If the persistence counter is greater than a trigger value, the detector indicates the presence of a intermittent signal component or otherwise declares the absence of a intermittent signal component. The detector may indicate the presence of a intermittent signal component by a logical value of 1 and the absence by a logical value of 0. The threshold value is composed of two components; the intermittent signal component and the background signal component.