The implementation of serial transmission protocols typically involves the transmission of data in form of serial data streams over multiple serial communication links in parallel. Upon reception, the serial data streams are aggregated to implement a behavior equivalent to the transmission of the data over a single serial communication link. A high-speed serial communication receiver with a central alignment control circuit is provided that performs the identification of word boundaries within each serial data stream, the alignment of all the serial data streams, and the arrangement of the serial communication links in a given order. Using a single central alignment control circuit reduces the circuit area required for performing these operations, facilitates a reduced latency, and can easily control a simplified switching network.