Patent ID: 7738639

Claim:
A method for synchronizing transmit and receive bit rates used to transmit data over a data link between a modem and a processing device, comprising: setting the receive bit rate to a highest supported bit rate; receiving data over the data link; detecting a bit pattern from the received data using the highest supported bit rate; determining if the detected bit pattern matches an expected bit pattern corresponding to data transmitted at the highest supported bit rate; if the detected bit pattern does not match the expected bit pattern, then determining if the detected bit pattern is one of a plurality of known bit patterns corresponding to fractional transmit bit rates, and if so, then determining the transmit bit rate based on the known bit patterns and setting the receive bit rate to the transmit bit rate; and if the detected bit pattern does not match either the expected bit pattern or one of the plurality of known bit patterns, then determining if the received data includes a framing error, and if so then setting the receive bit rate to a low detection bit rate that is lower than the fractional transmit bit rates corresponding to the plurality of known bit patterns.