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Book Review
Digital Clocks for Synchronization and Communications, by Masami Kihara, Sadayasu Ono and Pekka Eskelinen, Artech House (2003). ISBN 1-58053-506-2
Reviewed by Vladimir Botchev [vladimir.botchev@analog.com]
This is a book on practical phase-locked loop techniques. It is quite an achievement, in that it successfully provides working knowledge of a traditionally highly complex subject using mainly high-school-level mathematics. The authors rely more on intuitive explanations and well-designed figures and block diagrams than on complex theories and obscure derivations. In short, the book is a far cry from the style and depth of Mengali and D’Andrea’s Synchronization Techniques for Digital Receivers; rather, it is closer in spirit to Ronald Best’s Phase-Locked Loops.
After two short introductory chapters on the basic ideas of clock synchronization, the authors, in Chapter 3, present concise introductory material on signal processing—just enough for people not versed in this area to understand the terminology and follow the techniques presented in subsequent chapters. Chapter 4 presents a short introduction to basic PLL operation, and Chapter 5 provides a more in-depth analysis of the various flavors of PLLs. Chapter 6 presents results on the simulation of a digital PLL. Chapter 7 is a sort of taxonomy for clock systems in networks.
Chapter eight, a core chapter, introduces digital controlled oscillator basics, along with some performance measures for PLLs. Chapter 9 presents some integrated circuits for PLL applications. Chapters 10, 11 and 12 are devoted to the introduction to, characterization of and applications with direct digital synthesis (DDS). Chapters 13 and 14 are of high practical interest: they consider how various noise sources affect PLL performances and also discuss specific noise measurements. The last chapter provides a system view of the effects of the environment (wired or wireless) on overall performance. The book concludes with an appendix about correct use of operational values.
In conclusion, this is a practical book about PLLs and synchronization. Its price is on the high side, since it is a translation from the Japanese original. It also exists in electronic format, which is very convenient for rapid consultation.
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