Patent ID: 7817650

Claim:
A transmitting method for use in a data communication system, said method comprising: storing data from a respective plurality of input data streams in a plurality of buffers; monitoring an occupancy level of each of said plurality of buffers to detect if said occupancy level is sufficient to provide a complete data block to a transmission data stream; and selecting, in turn, by a transmission controller, a buffer from said plurality of buffers to output a data block to said transmission data stream and associating with said data block a block label comprising an input stream identifier, said selection being performed according to a cyclic buffer selection order so as to generate a corresponding cyclic sequence of data blocks for transmission so that if said buffer selected by said transmission controller is detected to have an insufficient occupancy level when selected, a dummy data block of the same size as a data block is supplied to said transmission data stream in place of a data block from said selected buffer so that the dummy data block takes the place of a data block from said selected buffer in the cyclic sequence of data blocks for transmission, in which said plurality of input data streams comprise audio data, and said dummy data block comprises a block label distinguishing said dummy data block from an audio data block; generating header data associated with a plurality of data blocks and adding said header data to said plurality of data blocks to form a data frame for output to said transmission data stream, where said header data comprises timing information for a plurality of base clocks; and generating configuration data for output to said transmission data stream, where said configuration data comprises data specifying a particular one of said plurality of base clocks to be associated with each of said plurality of input data streams and a sample rate multiplier specifying a relationship between said particular base clock and a sampling rate of said associated input data stream.