System and method of frame alignment at a receiver with power optimization mechanisms. A framer at the receiver is configured to process data streams from multiple physical lanes and/or multiple channels serially. The receiver may include multiple framers that process different sets of data streams in parallel. A framer may enter a power reduction mode after all the channels associated therewith have achieved frame alignment. The framer can be restarted to perform frame alignment processes on a particular channel responsive to an indication that the channel transitions to an out-of-frame state. The “out-of-frame” indication may be generated by a forward error correction (FEC) decoder when it detects an excessive number of uncorrectable errors in the channel.