Wire worked by not wireless

[dhouston]

It doesn't matter whether it's IR or RF. A protocol is a protocol and the priciples are the same. The only difference is that on the receiving end most IR receivers are active low while RF receivers are active high. X-10 has used the NEC IR protocol for their RF remotes for about 20 years, now.

But, even if you want to use manchester coding, you will still need a preamble to alert the receiver.

There is one other key difference with IR. IR receivers do not output continuous noise in the absence of a signal, so a preamble is not always necessary. Nevertheless, most protocols still use one.