Patent ID: 8644171

Claim:
A method for estimating a frame structure of multiplexed data comprising a plurality of samples, the method comprising: representing a state of an estimated frame structure of multiplexed data with a tree structure; receiving a sample; following receipt of each sample, determining, via a processor, a plurality of candidate signal sequences that are at least partially based upon the tree structure and which include the respective sample, said candidate signal sequences only occurring at each of one or more admissible sample rates, said sample rates being associated with a rate of samples of a signal prior to encoding; estimating an expected bit rate for coding of each candidate signal sequence; and determining an active signal sequence that includes the respective sample from among the candidate signal sequences based upon an estimated measure of performance, wherein determining the active signal sequence comprises selecting a set of active signal sequences from among the candidate signal sequences which minimizes a sum of the estimates of the expected bit rates for the candidate signal sequences that comprise the active signal sequences.