Patent ID: 8472478

Claim:
A 64B/65B coding method for coding a packet of information words into frames for transmission over 4 twisted pair conductor, the method comprising: receiving blocks of input data, the input data including control words and the packet of information words, the packet having (a) a start preceded by ones of the control words and (b) an ending followed by others of the control words, the blocks being smaller than the packet; determining when a block consists exclusively of information words and: when the block consists exclusively of information words, appending to the block a one bit block header having a first sense to form one of the frames; when the block does not consist exclusively of information words: condensing the block to accommodate a TYPE word, generating the TYPE word to have a value that indicates one of the following structural properties of the block: (a) a position of the start of the packet in the block, (b) a position of the end of the packet in the block, and (c) the block being composed exclusively of control words, inserting the TYPE word into the block, and appending to the block a one bit block header having a second sense, opposite to the first sense, to form the one of the frames, performing forward error correction (FEC) on the frames to generate FEC data; wherein the method reduces overhead to less than 3%.