Many communication systems asynchronously communicate data over a communications channel. For example, in many network applications, the communication channel is designed to comply with the IEEE std. 802.3-2000, published October, 2000. Although the IEEE 802.3 standard (also referred to herein as the Ethernet standard) is in wide use, there are many other asynchronous communications channels such as, for example, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Packet over SONET (POS), Token Ring, and Fiber Channel.
Transmitter, receiver and/or transceiver units used in such communication systems often communicate control data (including diagnostic, synchronization and configuration, and other types of data used in managing the units) among each other. In many conventional communication systems, this control data is communicated in the same manner as normal communications data. For example, in an Ethernet channel, the control data would be communicated using data frames that comply with the Ethernet standard. As a result, each data frame used to transfer control data cannot be used for normal communications data, thereby reducing the effective bandwidth of normal communications data.