SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LAYER 2 FRAME DELINEATION RECOVERY

摘要

Methods, receivers and transmitters all adapted to assist in the performance of layer (2) frame delineation are provided which are applicable in the context of OFDM, and also applicable to any layer (1) design facilitating high data rate transmission. Advantageously, the invention allows the identification of where a layer (2) frame begins notwithstanding the fact that the previous layer (2) header, which would normally be used to identify the location of the next layer (2) frame, has been received in error. This means that rather than discarding a lot of data after an erroneous header, for example all data until a super-frame boundary, layer (2) frames can be correctly received starting with the next header received in a non-erroneous layer (1) frame. The method implemented at a transmitter, provided by one broad aspect of the invention involves prior to transmitting layer (1) frames, adding layer (2) boundary information to each layer (1) frame, the layer (2) boundary information indicating whether there is a layer (2) header within the layer (1) frame and indicating where in the layer (1) frame the layer (2) header begins. The layer (2) boundary information can consist of frame delineation bits added to each layer (1) frame. At a receiver of frames transmitted using the above noted transmit functionality, the receiver receives a sequence of layer (1) frames. For each layer (1) frame received, the boundary information is extracted from the layer (1) frame indicating whether there is a layer (2) header within the layer (1) frame, and indicating where in the layer (1) frame the layer (2) header begins.