Patent ID: 8363541

Claim:
A system for retrieving a data set from a formatted data frame in a data stream received from an electronic engine control for a gas turbine engine, the system comprising: memory for buffering the data stream; and a processing unit configured to retrieve a data set comprising engine data relating to the gas turbine engine from a first formatted data frame in the data stream, by: a) identifying a candidate first synch/counter synch field in a candidate header of the first formatted data frame, the synch/counter synch field representing one of a synchronization pattern and a counter synchronization pattern; b) determining a number of data entries in the data set based on a candidate number field in the candidate header; c) determining a size of each data entry in the data set, based on a candidate size field in the candidate header; d) calculating an expected location of a next synch/counter synch field of a next formatted data frame in the data stream, based on the number of data entries and the size of each data entry determined from the candidate header; e) determining whether another one of the synchronization pattern and the counter synchronization pattern, alternating with the candidate first synch/counter synch field, is located at the calculated location; if the other one of the synchronization pattern and the counter synchronization pattern is found located at the expected location, determining the candidate header as the verified header of the first formatted data frame; if the other one of the synchronization pattern and the counter synchronization pattern is not found at the calculated location, discarding the candidate first synch/counter synch field, scanning linearly through the data stream for a next candidate first synch/counter synch field and repeating a) to e); and f) retrieving the data set from the first formatted data frame using information in the verified header of the first formatted data frame.