Asymmetric data path media access controller
First Claim
1. A method for maintaining throughput in a data element, comprising the steps of:
- receiving in a switch a clock and a plurality of instances of data having a first width on an input, wherein the switch comprises at least one physical layer device, at least one media independent interface, and at least one media access controller;
processing consecutive ones of the plurality of instances of data having the first width to produce more than one of a plurality of instances of data having a second width wherein the second data width are equivalent to the first data width and the more than one of the plurality of instances of data having the second data width are used to produce a plurality of instances of data having a third data width wherein the third data width are greater than the second data width and the plurality of instances of data having the third data width are used to produce a plurality of instances of data having an output data width wherein the output data width are equivalent to the third data width; and
transmitting the plurality of instances of data having the output data width.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for maintaining data throughput in a data element includes receiving a clock and a first plurality of instances of data having a first width on an input, sampling consecutive ones of instances of the data having the first width at consecutive ones of a first rising edge and a first falling edge of the clock, respectively, to generate two plurality of instances of sampled data having a first width. The plurality of instances of sampled data is then sampled at a second rising edge of the clock and parallelized to generate a second plurality of instances of parallel data having a second width greater than the first width. The parallel data may then be processed to for example generate statistics to monitor link integrity, prior to being transmitted. A 10 Gbps data transmission speed may be maintained using the IEEE 802.3ae-specified media independent interface clock.
16 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for maintaining throughput in a data element, comprising the steps of:
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receiving in a switch a clock and a plurality of instances of data having a first width on an input, wherein the switch comprises at least one physical layer device, at least one media independent interface, and at least one media access controller; processing consecutive ones of the plurality of instances of data having the first width to produce more than one of a plurality of instances of data having a second width wherein the second data width are equivalent to the first data width and the more than one of the plurality of instances of data having the second data width are used to produce a plurality of instances of data having a third data width wherein the third data width are greater than the second data width and the plurality of instances of data having the third data width are used to produce a plurality of instances of data having an output data width wherein the output data width are equivalent to the third data width; and transmitting the plurality of instances of data having the output data width. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification