Patent ID: 8565357

Claim:
A method for detecting a first start frame delimiter (SFD) and a second SFD for a received data packet in a network that utilizes multiple SFD patterns to distinguish between different types of data packets that are transmitted via the network, wherein the first start frame delimiter is different from the second frame delimiter, the method comprising the following steps: performing a first correlation of successive bits in the received packet with the first start frame delimiter, and for each incoming bit of the received packet, generating a metric value that indicates a first degree of correlation; if a generated metric value exceeds a first predetermined threshold, indicating the start of a timing epoch; performing a second correlation of successive bits in the received packet with the second start frame delimiter, and for each incoming bit of the received packet, generating a metric value that indicates a second degree of correlation; determining whether each metric value generated during the second correlation exceeds a second threshold value lower than the first threshold value; and if the metric value generated during the second correlation exceeds the second predetermined threshold, indicating a hypothetical start of a timing epoch.