System and method for frame synchronization

A method for identifying receipt of a sync word in a stream of signal data is provided. The method includes receiving a signal value representing an incoming bit in the stream of signal data. The method also includes inserting the signal value into a first shift register having the same length as the sync word. The method further includes calculating a bit value from the signal value. The method also includes storing the bit value into a second shift register having the same length as the sync word. The method further includes counting the number of matches between the bit values in the second shift register and the corresponding bits in the sync word. The method also includes computing a correlation of the signal data and the sync word by summing the product of each signal value in the first shift register and the corresponding bit in the sync word. The method further includes producing a normalized correlation by dividing the correlation by the energy. The method also includes outputting a signal indicating the presence of a sync word if the number of matches is at least equal to a predetermined hard correlation threshold and if the normalized correlation is at least equal to a predetermined soft correlation threshold.