Method and apparatus for interfacing a media independent interface with DVB-compliant modulators

Abstract

A method for interfacing a media independent interface with a DVB compliant modulator includes the step of receiving nibbles of data from a media independent interface in accordance with a transmit clock signal and a holdoff signal during assertion of a transmit enable signal, wherein the nibbles of data are a portion of a variable sized packet. The nibbles of data are stored into a first buffer. The transmit clock signal is disabled. The nibbles of data are shifted out of the first buffer in accordance with a serial clock signal to provide a first bitstream. The first bitstream is framed into a predetermined packet size. The holdoff signal is asserted to halt the first bitstream. A synchronization indicator is serially inserted into the first bitstream in accordance with the serial clock signal to form a second bitstream. The second bitstream is parallelized to form parallelized data. The parallelized data and a synchronization signal corresponding to the synchronization indicator are synchronously provided in accordance with a parallel clock signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.