Full text can be accessed at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014036649800125XFrame synchronization systems that employ multiple-code markers have been shown to give better synchronization performance than systems that employ single-code markers. It has been shown, however, that only a few of the codewords in the marker need to be used in order to attain optimum synchronization performance. Among the multiple-code marker systems which have gained wide usage recently is the SONET scheme for information transmissions at high data rates. In this report, a model for the analysis of the synchronization performance of systems which employ SONET-like frames is developed. The model is then applied to the SONET scheme to study how its performance varies with the choice of the parameters in its frame structure.