public function serializeUInt8(array $uint8Str = null)
    {
        if (null === $uint8Str) {
            $uint8 = $this->serializeInt(null);
        }
        else {
            // prepend size on 4 bytes
            $count = count($uint8Str);
            $uint8 = $this->serializeInt($count);

            for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
                array_push($uint8, $uint8Str[$i]);
            }
        }

        return $uint8;
    }