Patent ID: 6975610
Filing Date: 2005-12-13
Classification: H04J

Abstract:
1. A method for communicating between a plurality of asynchronous transmitting and receiving systems using digital streams arranged in multiple access frames, the method comprising: (a) in a master system, cycling a counter using a clock reference to generate a master count, and using the master count to establish a master frame count; (b) in a slave system, cycling a counter using a clock reference to generate a main count and using the main count to establish a main frame count; (c) from a difference between the master frame count and the main frame count of the slave system, determining a frame count offset value; (d) establishing a slave frame count for the slave system by adding the offset value to the main frame count, and thereby aligning the slave frame count of the slave system with the master frame count and incrementing the slave frame count when the main count is incremented; (e) communicating digital streams between the master and slave systems by aligning frames with the clock reference of the master system when the slave frame count for the slave system is aligned with the master frame count wherein the master and slave systems each generate a count with a plurality of bits which define frame boundaries for the respective systems, the step of aligning frames with the clock reference of the master system further comprising determining a bit offset between a master system frame boundary and a slave system frame boundary and adjusting the slave system fire boundary with the bit offset so that the frames are aligned.