US Patent 7860190 Multi-channel timing recovery system

The present invention, in particular embodiments, is directed to methods, apparatuses and systems that provide global timing error information derived from timing error information of each data channel. This is achieved, in part, by summing the timing error information from all the data channels and integrating and scaling the resulting sum. The integrated, scaled sum is then added to the proportional and integral timing information of each individual data channel. By doing so, incorrect timing error estimates are averaged out. Additionally, when severe noise and dropouts (loss of data signal) at an individual data channel occur, that channel may rely on the global timing error information. In some implementations, that individual data channel's timing error information contribution can be excluded from the global timing error information.