Cycle slip in clock recovery on frequency-selective fading channels

The mechanism and fundamental nature of the "cycle slip phenomenon" in clock recovery, which triggers the occurrence of burst-type irreducible errors in frequency-selective fading conditions, are theoretically clarified for PSK transmission systems with a coherent detection scheme. The appropriateness of the theory is identified through measurement by means of a fading simulator and a 64 kb/s QPSK modem. Moreover, a simple formula for predicting the frequency of cycle slip occurrence in Rayleigh-fading environments is developed, the accuracy of which is confirmed by means of computer simulation.