An integrated circuit 2 is provided including multiple devices 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 for communicating via an interconnect 16. A sending device 18 includes a sideband signal indicating the use of a representation of a repeating data word in place of that repeating data word itself. The receiving device can then form the repeating pattern of data words in response to receipt of the representation. This reduces the bandwidth consumed upon the interconnect 16.