Time Synchronization & Frame Synchronization

The time synchronization method is a standard open  loop technique that  works fine for many uses. It results in establishing  both bit timing  and frame alignment. Fundamentally we start with a  signal that is  oversampled 8 times, and then look for a particular  synchronization  pattern at every possible offset. When we find the  best one, we  declare that we are synchronized, and use that  alignment for the duration of the current frame. It's similar to the oversampling  technique used in UARTs to find the middle of the  start bit.

Synchronization is generally not well covered in the introductory communication text books

Frerking, "Digital Signal Processing in  Communication Systems" is full  of practical digital comms techniques, including  some having to do  with synchronization.

Meyr, Moeneclaey and Fechtel, "Digital  Communications Receivers:  Synchronization, Channel Estimation, and Signal  Processing" is pretty  much all about synchronization, but is pretty heavy going.