Communications system including lower rate parallel electronics with skew compensation and associated methods

A communications system comprising:

• a first device comprising a plurality of electrical-to-transmission medium converters and a medium multiplexer connected thereto;
• a second device comprising a medium demultiplexer and a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters connected thereto and defining parallel communications channels between said first and second devices;
• said first device further comprising a cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) coder for determining and appending a CRC code to each information bit string of information bit strings to be transmitted in parallel over respective parallel communications channels, each CRC code being based upon at least some of the information bits in the respective information bit string;
• and
• said second device further comprising a deskewer for aligning received information bit strings based upon the CRC codes.

A receiving device for information bit strings transmitted over at least one transmission medium in parallel communications channels, and wherein the information symbol strings have string-based framing codes appended thereto prior to transmission over the parallel communications channels, the receiving device comprising:

• a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters to be connected to the at least one transmission medium;
• a framer connected to the medium-to-electrical converters for framing information symbol strings based upon the string-based framing codes;
• and
• an aligner for aligning parallel communication channel framed information symbol strings relative to one another and based upon the string-based framing codes, each string-based framing code being based upon at least some of information symbols in a respective information symbol string.

A receiving device for information bit strings transmitted over a transmission medium in parallel communications channels, and wherein the information bit strings have cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) codes appended thereto prior to transmission over the parallel communications channels, the receiving device comprising:

• a medium demultiplexer to be connected to the transmission medium;
• a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters connected to the medium demultiplexer;
• a CRC framer connected to the medium-to-electrical converters for framing information bit strings based upon the CRC codes;
• and
• an aligner for aligning parallel communication channel framed information bit strings relative to one another and based upon the CRC codes, each CRC code being based upon at least some of information symbols in a respective information symbol string.

A method for communicating from a first device to a second device comprising the steps of:

• defining parallel communications channels between the first and second devices by operating a plurality of electrical-to-transmission medium converters of the first device which are connected to at least one transmission medium, and operating a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters at the second device which are connected to the at least one transmission medium;
• determining and appending a string-based framing code to each information symbol string of information symbol strings at the first device for transmission in parallel over respective parallel communications channels, each string-based framing code being based upon at least some of the information symbols in the respective information symbol string;
• and
• deskewing received information symbol strings at the second device by aligning received information symbol strings based upon the string-based framing codes, each string-based framing code being based upon at least some of the information symbols in a respective information symbol string.

A method for communicating from a first device to a second device comprising the steps of:

• defining parallel communications channels between the first and second devices by operating a plurality of electrical-to-transmission medium converters of the first device multiplexed onto a transmission medium, demultiplexing from the transmission medium at the second device, and operating a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters at the second device;
• determining and appending a cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) code to each information bit string of information bit strings at the first device for transmission in parallel therefrom over respective parallel communications channels, each CRC code being based upon at least some of the information bits in the respective information bit string;
• and
• deskewing received information bit strings at the second device by aligning received information bit strings based upon the CRC codes.

A method for receiving information bit strings transmitted over at least one transmission medium in parallel communications channels, and wherein the information symbol strings have string-based framing codes appended thereto prior to transmission over the parallel communications channels, the method comprising the steps of:

• operating a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters connected to the at least one transmission medium;
• framing information symbol strings from the transmission medium-to-electrical converters based upon the string-based framing codes;
• and
• aligning framed information symbol strings from the parallel communication channels relative to one another and based upon the string-based framing codes, each string-based framing code being based upon at least some of the information symbols in a respective information symbol string.

A method for receiving information bit strings transmitted over a transmission medium in parallel communications channels, wherein the information bit strings have cyclic redundancy checking (CRC) codes appended thereto prior to transmission over the parallel communications channels, and wherein the parallel communications channels are multiplexed on a common transmission medium, the method comprising the steps of:

• demultiplexing from the common transmission medium;
• operating a plurality of transmission medium-to-electrical converters after demultiplexing;
• framing information bit strings from the transmission medium-to-electrical converters based upon the CRC codes;
• and
• aligning framed information bit strings from the parallel communications channels relative to one another and based upon the CRC codes, each CRC code being based upon at least some of information symbols in a respective information bit string.