Patent attributes
FEC frame synchronization in a DAB-IP system comprising FEC frames includes receiving FEC packets each comprising a FEC packet header and a FEC data field comprising padding bytes at an end of a last FEC packet received; comparing a received FEC packet header with a known FEC packet header until a number of bit errors in the received FEC packet header is less than or equal to a predetermined amount; and matching the received FEC packet header and the padding bytes until at least one of the following actions occur thereby resulting in receiver locking: a number of successive FEC packet headers mismatches in the received FEC packet header; a predetermined number of FEC packets end without padding matching; and FEC packet header and padding matching occurs. The received FEC packets are tracked after receiver locking has occurred to ensure FEC parity packets are positioned properly in the FEC frames.