Patent ID: 7742519

Claim:
A method for rate matching between an input data stream and an output data stream, said input data stream having a higher data rate than the output data stream, said data being loaded in a group of data bits with said input data bits being stored in an input buffer and said output data bits being stored in an output buffer, said method comprising the following steps for each said group of data bits: generating a flag buffer having equal number of bits as the input buffer, calculating bit value for each position in said flag buffer so as to indicate the status of the corresponding input data bit in the output data stream, starting from a significant bit position in the flag buffer, determining the number of consecutive bits (N) in said flag buffer having a same value as that of the bit in the significant bit position; if the significant bit position of the flag buffer has a first state then storing N consecutive significant bits of the input buffer in the output buffer, as such, else discarding N consecutive significant bits of the input buffer while writing the output buffer; flushing out the N consecutive significant bits from the input buffer and the flag buffer simultaneously, wherein flushing of the input buffer and the flag buffer is concurrent and begins and ends in unison; and repeating the above determining, storing or discarding, and flushing steps for the full length of said input buffer.