An apparatus comprising a frame alignment processor coupled to a receiver, wherein the frame alignment processor is configured to align a first frame and a second frame in the receiver by matching a first synchronization (sync) pattern predicted using a first sync field in the first frame with a second sync pattern obtained from a second sync field in the second frame. Included is an apparatus comprising at least one component configured to implement a method comprising receiving a first frame, subsequently receiving a second frame that was transmitted after the first frame, predicting a first sync pattern from a first sync field in the first frame, obtaining a second sync pattern from a second sync field in the second frame, and determining that the first frame and the second frame are aligned when the first sync pattern matches the second sync pattern.