Patent ID: 7940759

Claim:
A method of performing Forward Error Correction (FEC) frame synchronization in a Digital Audio Broadcasting-Internet Protocol (DAB-IP) system comprising FEC frames, said method comprising: receiving a plurality of FEC packets, wherein each FEC packet comprises a FEC packet header and a FEC data field, and wherein said FEC data field comprises padding bytes in at least one of said plurality of FEC packets; comparing FEC packet headers of successively received FEC packets to known FEC packet headers until a number of FEC packet headers of successively received FEC packets are comparable to said known FEC packet headers, wherein a successively received FEC packet is comparable to known FEC packet header when a number of bit errors in a comparison of said successively received FEC packet and said known FEC packet header is less than a predetermined amount; comparing said received FEC packet header to said known FEC packet headers and said received padding bytes with known padding bytes, wherein said comparing comprises storing a number of successive FEC packet header mismatches and storing a number of FEC packets ends without padding matching, and wherein said comparing continues until at least one of the following actions occur: a predetermined number of successive FEC packet headers mismatches in said received FEC packet header has been found; a predetermined number of FEC packets end without padding matching has been found; and FEC packet header and padding matching occurs; tracking said successively received FEC packets after FEC packet header and padding matching has occurred to ensure FEC packets are positioned properly in said FEC frames.