PPP frame encapsulation of IP frames--including FCS calculation, character escaping, and HDLC flag insertion--is performed by hardware acceleration circuits within a DMA module as part of a DMA transfer autonomously of a processor. Software may preprocess the IP packets prior to the hardware-accelerated processing. The hardware acceleration in the DMA module may additionally decapsulate PPP frames--including FCS calculation and comparison for error detection, escaped character recovery, and frame boundary detection--to assist in the formation of IP packets. The hardware-accelerated PPP framing may be particularly useful when a mobile terminal provides internet access, through a wireless communication network over packet data channels, to an attached peripheral device, such as a computer.