Patent ID: 7327732

Claim:
A method for receiving delineated frames comprising the steps of: receiving a stream of bits: searching said stream of bits for a start sequence: extracting a subunit of data from said bit stream once the start sequence is recognized; accumulating subunits of data into a data buffer to form a data unit in said data buffer; and transmitting said data unit from said data buffer by: addressing said data buffer with an offset address that represents the location of the first data subunit of the data unit; and if the number of data subunits retrieved from said data buffer is less than that required to form a data unit: retrieving a data subunit from the addressed location in the data buffer; incrementing the addressed location if the next addressed location is not beyond a wrapping boundary comprising the data buffer; and setting the addressed location to the beginning of the data buffer if the next addressed location is beyond the wrapping boundary.