Full text can be accessed at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207219508926138The reliability of a communication system depends on the design of its receiver, because it is the receiver which has to retrieve the information from the channel with high accuracy even if that information has been corrupted by noise. The design parameters chosen for the receiver are more critical than the other design parameters of the communication system. The design parameters of a code-synchronized communication system are determined. In addition, the role of the synchronization efficiency in determining the design parameters of the receiver is demonstrated.