System and method for providing an ethernet interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10757152-B2
Application number	US-201816203962-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2018
Priority date	Dec 11, 2006
Publication date	Aug 25, 2020
Grant date	Aug 25, 2020

Abstract

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes n electrical communication channels, m optical communication media interfaces, and a plurality of muxes. The plurality of muxes are configured to receive an information stream, the information stream carried over the n electrical communication channels and the m optical communication media interfaces. The plurality of muxes are further configured to transform the information stream from v virtual lanes, each virtual lane comprising a plurality of data blocks from the information stream and an alignment block, wherein v is a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
n electrical communication channels;
m optical communication media interfaces; and
a plurality of muxes configured to:
receive an information stream, the information stream carried over the n electrical communication channels and the m optical communication media interfaces; and
transform the information stream from v virtual lanes, each virtual lane comprising a plurality of data blocks from the information stream and an alignment block, wherein:
v is a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n;
v is greater than n; and
n is greater than m.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
v is less than or equal to twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are fixed.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
v is greater than twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are different.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , further configured to:
identify, in a buffer, the alignment block associated with the virtual lane; and
recreate an original data stream using, at least in part, the alignment block.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the electrical communication channels comprises a SerDes interface operating at at least 5 Gigabits per second.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the m optical communication media interfaces is configured to receive a different stream of information over a single optical fiber.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising one or more decoding modules for decoding the information stream into the plurality of data blocks using 64B/66B encoding.

8. A method, comprising:
receiving an information stream, the information stream carried over n electrical communication channels and m optical communication media interfaces; and
transforming the information stream from v virtual lanes, each virtual lane comprising a plurality of data blocks from the information stream and an alignment block, wherein:
v is a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n;
v is greater than n; and
n is greater than m.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
v is less than or equal to twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are fixed.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
v is greater than twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are different.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
identifying, in a buffer, the alignment block associated with the virtual lane; and
recreating an original data stream using, at least in part, the alignment block.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the electrical communication channels comprises a SerDes interface operating at at least 5 Gigabits per second.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the m optical communication media interfaces is configured to receive a different stream of information over a single optical fiber.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising decoding, by one or more decoding modules, the information stream into the plurality of data blocks using 64B/66B encoding.

15. A system, comprising:
a receiver for receiving an information stream, the information stream carried over n electrical communication channels and m optical communication media interfaces; and
one or more muxes for transforming the information stream from v virtual lanes, each virtual lane comprising a plurality of data blocks from the information stream and an alignment block, wherein:
v is a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n;
v is greater than n; and
n is greater than m.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein:
v is less than or equal to twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are fixed.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein:
v is greater than twenty;
each virtual lane comprises an alignment pattern; and
the alignment patterns are different.

18. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
one or more muxes for identifying, in the buffer, the alignment block associated with the virtual lane; and
one or more muxes for recreating an original data stream using, at least in part, the alignment block;
wherein transforming the information stream from v virtual lanes comprises recreating the original data stream using, at least in part, the alignment block.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein each of the electrical communication channels comprises a SerDes interface operating at at least 5 Gigabits per second.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein each of the m optical communication media interfaces is configured to receive a different stream of information over a single optical fiber.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Gustlin Mark A
• Trainin Oded
• Della Chiesa Luca

Classifications

• H04L47/10

  Flow control; Congestion control · CPC title

• H04L65/61

  for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio · CPC title

• H04L47/13 Primary

  in a LAN segment, e.g. ring or bus · CPC title

• H04L49/352

  Gigabit ethernet switching [GBPS] · CPC title

• H04L47/39

  Credit based · CPC title