Patent ID: 7953101

Claim:
A method comprising: moving a first ordered set included in a received group of Fibre Channel (FC) protocol words from its original word position to a first word position in the received group of FC protocol words to form a reordered group of FC protocol words, with each FC protocol word having four byte positions and being either a data word including four data bytes or an ordered set including a control character followed by three data bytes; pre-pending a syncbit having a first logic value to the reordered group; replacing the control character in the first ordered set with a control code byte indicating whether the FC protocol word in the second word position of the reordered group is an ordered set or a data word, indicating the original word position of the first ordered set in the received group of FC protocol words, and indicating the identity of the control character included in the first ordered set; receiving a transmitted reordered group of FC protocol words; interpreting the control code byte of a first word in the first word position of the transmitted reordered group of FC protocol words if the syncbit has the first logic value, to determine the original position of the first word in the received group of Fibre Channel (FC) protocol words and identify the control character; replacing the control code byte with an identified control character to form the first ordered set; and moving the first ordered set to its original position in the received group of FC control words.