Patent ID: 7424307

Claim:
A communications system, the system comprising: one or more radio head interface modules; and a call processing software module, the one or more radio head interface modules adapted to communicate with the call processing software module; wherein the call processing software module performs modulation and demodulation of voice and data streams using one or more air interface standards; wherein the call processing software module communicates a forward data stream to a first radio head interface of the one or more radio head interface modules; wherein the forward data stream comprises a plurality of data samples representing voice and data streams and a plurality of fixed synchronization words; wherein when the first radio head interface module does not observe the receipt of a first fixed synchronization word of the plurality of fixed synchronization words word from the call processing software module when expected, the first radio head interface module concludes that it has lost synchronization with the call processing software module; wherein the first radio head interface module further comprises: a transmit buffer, the transmit buffer adapted to receive the forward data stream from the call processing software module, the transmit buffer adapted to store the forward data stream as a page of data samples having the fixed synchronization word within a page header; a transmit engine; and a digital upconverter; the transmit engine adapted to transfer the data samples of the page of data samples from the transmit buffer to the digital upconverter; the radio head interface module adapted to observe a first fixed synchronization word at an expected position within a first page of data samples; wherein the radio head interface module is further adapted to stop transferring the data samples of the page of data samples from the transmit buffer to the digital upconverter when the first fixed synchronization word is not found at the expected position.