synchronizing a system clock with a real time clock to provide a system clock time;

collecting digital data from a plurality of sources at a known system clock time, each source being identified with a source identifier;

providing the system clock time to a sample counter having a full count and a partial count, the partial count being the least significant portion of the full count, and the sample counter providing a count for each system clock time;

associating the digital data for each source with each count of the partial count at the system clock time;

composing a data cell from the digital data associated with at least one count of the partial count and the source identifier;

composing a data frame from the composed data cells from all of the sources;

composing a cell frame from a plurality of data frames, each cell frame being associated with a revolution of the partial count;

composing a time frame as a predetermined number of cell frames;

composing a heads up cell from the full count of the sample counter;

composing a time/count cell from the full count of the sample counter and a synchronized real time from the real time clock;

transmitting the heads up cell before transmitting each composed time frame;

transmitting the composed time frame; and

transmitting the time/count cell between cell frames within an associated time frame, said transmitted heads up cells, composed time frames and time/count cells being collectively identified as an asynchronous data stream.