Optical transmitters and receivers for improving synchronization of data transmitted over an optical network are described. The receiver can perform non-linear filtering as part of framer index estimation operations to improve the synchronization. The receiver can determine estimated positions of framer indices in data frames received from the transmitter. Next, using a non-linear filter, the receiver can remove estimated positions that are likely erroneous or are greater than a threshold away from the median or mode estimated framer index position. By removing the likely erroneous estimated positions, the receiver can then determine the estimated position of a framer index position for multiple frames with greater confidence.