Arrangement and method for synchronizing a signal processing device with an incoming signal

1. An arrangement for synchronizing a signal processing apparatus with a received signal which has a characteristic signal content appearing at a position and an associated appearance time, the arrangement comprising:

a flow control device;

a first control loop configured to readjust the signal processing apparatus with respect to the characteristic signal content on a content basis;

a second control loop configured to readjust the flow control device in the signal processing apparatus with respect to the times at which the characteristic signal content appears;

wherein the first control loop and the second control loop are independently operating control loops;

wherein the first control loop and the second control loop are coupled such that a unique association is achieved between the position of the characteristic signal content in the received signal and the associated appearance time,

wherein the received signal has samples which are arranged at a particular distance from one another, and

wherein the first control loop and the second control loop are coupled via a variable fractional sampling rate conversion device comprising at least a data capture device and a sample counting device configured to change the distance between the samples in the received signal on the basis of a conversion ratio to generate a converted received signal having the characteristic signal content from the received signal, said variable fractional sampling rate conversion device configured to perform time compression or expansion for signal contents so that an operating clock for the arrangement can be based on different frequencies.

2. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the first control loop detects the characteristic signal content in the converted received signal, determines a positional error between the position of the characteristic signal content and a reference position, and controls the conversion ratio of the sampling rate conversion device on the basis of the positional error in order to match the position of the characteristic signal content in the converted received signal to the reference position.

3. The arrangement of claim 2 wherein the sampling rate conversion device indicates appearance times for the samples in the converted received signal, and wherein the second control loop detects the indicated appearance times, generates the reference position and a time reference from the detected appearance times, determines a timing error between the time reference and a piece of time information which is generated by the flow control device in the signal processing apparatus, and controls the flow control device on the basis of the timing error in order to match the flow control device to the time reference.

4. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the first control loop includes a data capture device and a computation device.

5. The arrangement of 4 wherein the data capture device includes a correlation receiver which detects a correlation maximum within data channels.

6. The arrangement of claim 5 wherein the data capture device includes a correlator which detects synchronization information for various propagation paths for the received signal or transmission stations.

7. The arrangement of claim 4 wherein the second control loop includes a sample counting device and the computation device.

8. The arrangement of claim 7 wherein the sample counting device includes a first sample counter configured to count the frequency with which the samples in the converted received signal appear within a transmission frame, and a second sample counter configured to detect the position in time at which the samples appear with respect to an operating clock.

9. The arrangement of claim 3 wherein the time information indicates the appearance of a sample or of a particular number of samples or both.

10. The arrangement of claim 2 wherein the reference position is the center point of a time observation window, and the signal processing apparatus is readjusted in order to keep the characteristic signal content in the center of the time observation window.

11. The arrangement of claim 7 wherein the data capture device and the sample counting device average the results therefrom.

12. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the arrangement is used in a UMTS mobile station.

13. A method for synchronizing a signal processing apparatus having a flow control device with a received signal which has a characteristic signal content having a position and an associated appearance time, the method comprising:

readjusting the signal processing apparatus with respect to the characteristic signal content on a content basis;

readjusting the flow control device in the signal processing apparatus with respect to the times at which the characteristic signal content appears; and

coupling the steps of content-based readjustment and of readjusting the flow control device such that a unique association is achieved between the position of the characteristic signal content in the received signal and the associated appearance time,

wherein the received signal has samples which are arranged at a particular distance from one another, and in which the step of coupling comprises changing the distance between the samples in the received signal by means of a variable fractional sampling rate convention device on the basis of a conversion ratio to generate a converted received signal,

said variable fractional sampling rate conversion device coupling a first control loop and a second control loop that are independently operating control loops, and comprising at least a data capture device and a sample counting device which are configured to perform time compression or expansion for signal contents so that an operating clock for the arrangement can be based on different frequencies.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the of content-based readjusting step comprises: detecting the characteristic signal content in the converted received signal; determining a positional error between the position of the characteristic signal content and a reference position; and controlling the conversion ratio on the basis of the positional error in order to match the position of the characteristic signal content to the reference position.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising indicating the times at which the samples appear in the converted received signal and wherein readjusting the flow control device step comprises: detecting the indicated appearance times; generating the reference position and a time reference from the detected appearance times; determining a timing error between the time reference and a piece of time information which is generated by the flow control device in the signal processing apparatus; and controlling the flow control device on the basis of the timing error in order to match the flow control device to the time reference.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising averaging the detected and determined values in content-based readjusting step and the readjusting the flow control device step.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising averaging the detected and determined values in content-based readjusting step and the readjusting the flow control device step.