Network physical link (PHY) switch system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9729472-B2
Application number	US-201414300861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2014
Priority date	Jun 11, 2011
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

One example includes network physical link (PHY) switch system. The system includes a multiplexer to output a first of a plurality of data streams that are input to a PHY device in response to a first state of a selection signal. The system also includes a data detector that monitors the first data stream and provides a trigger signal in response to a predetermined condition associated with the first data stream. The system further includes a switching controller that provides the selection signal, and in response to a switching command signal indicating a command to switch from the first data stream to the second data stream, monitors the data detector for the trigger signal and changes the selection signal from the first state to a second state in response to receiving the trigger signal to switch to the second data stream of the plurality of data streams.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network physical link (PHY) switch system comprising:
a multiplexer configured to output a first data stream of a plurality of data streams that are input to a PHY device in response to a first state of a selection signal;
a data detector configured to monitor the first data stream and to provide a trigger signal in response to detecting an occurrence of a predetermined condition associated with the first data stream; and
a switching controller configured to provide the selection signal in one of the first state and a second state, and, in response to receiving a switching command signal that indicates a command to switch from the first data stream to a second data stream of the plurality of data streams, is configured to monitor the data detector for the trigger signal and to change the selection signal from the first state to the second state in response to receiving the trigger signal to switch from the first data stream to the second data stream, wherein the first data stream and the second data stream correspond to one of a plurality of MAC transmit signals provided to the PHY device from a media access control (MAC) device or one of a plurality of PHY receive signals provided to the PHY device from a backplane to which the PHY device is connected.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data mask component configured to discard the first data stream and to insert dummy data in place of the discarded first data stream in response to the trigger signal, wherein the data detector is further configured to deactivate the trigger signal in response to a predetermined condition associated with the second data stream to enable the second data stream to pass through the data mask component.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition associated with the first data stream corresponds to an end of a packet associated with the first data stream.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a clock tolerance compensation (CTC) first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer coupled to the output of the multiplexer, the CTC FIFO being configured to buffer the first data stream during the first state of the selection signal and to buffer the second data stream during the second state of the selection signal.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a fault detection component configured to detect a link fault associated with the first data stream and to indicate the link fault to the switching controller to switch from the first data stream to the second data stream via the selection signal.

6. An Ethernet routing system comprising the network PHY switch system of claim 1 .

7. A crosspoint routing system that includes a plurality of the network PHY switch system of claim 1 , the crosspoint routing system comprising:
a plurality of ports coupled to a backplane, each of the plurality of ports comprising a media access control (MAC) device and the PHY device, the PHY device comprising:
a MAC interface comprising a plurality of MAC interface outputs configured to transmit a respective plurality of MAC receive signals to the MAC device, each of the plurality of MAC interface outputs comprising the at least one of the network PHY switch systems; and
a physical medium dependent (PMD) interface comprising a plurality of PMD interface outputs configured to transmit a respective plurality of PHY transmit signals to the backplane, each of the plurality of PMD interface outputs comprising another of the network PHY switch systems.

8. The crosspoint routing system of claim 7 , wherein the MAC interface further comprises a plurality of MAC interface inputs configured to receive the plurality of MAC transmit signals from the MAC device, and wherein the PMD interface further comprises a plurality of PMD interface inputs configured to receive the plurality of PHY receive signals from the backplane.

9. The crosspoint routing system of claim 8 , wherein the multiplexer associated with each of the plurality of MAC interface outputs is configured to output the respective one of the plurality of MAC receive signals as one of the plurality of MAC transmit signals or one of the plurality of PHY receive signals in response to the selection signal, and wherein the multiplexer associated with each of the plurality of PMD interface outputs is configured to output the respective one of the plurality of PHY transmit signals as one of the plurality of MAC transmit signals or one of the plurality of PHY receive signals in response to the selection signal.

10. The crosspoint routing system of claim 7 , wherein the MAC interface is configured to receive the plurality of MAC transmit signals and to transmit the plurality of MAC receive signals at a first data rate, and wherein the PMD interface is configured to receive the plurality of PHY receive signals and to transmit the plurality of PHY transmit signals at a second data rate that is greater than the first data rate.

11. The crosspoint routing system of claim 10 , wherein the multiplexer associated with each of the plurality of PMD interface outputs is configured to output the respective one of the plurality of PHY transmit signals as one of the plurality of PHY receive signals in response to the selection signal in a retime mode absent a change of the respective one of the plurality of PHY receive signals from the second data rate to the first data rate.

12. A method for switching from a first data stream to a second data stream in a physical link (PHY) device of a network device, the method comprising:
providing a selection signal in a first state to select the first data stream that is input to the PHY device to be output from a multiplexer;
receiving a switching control signal that indicates a command to switch from the first data stream to the second data stream;
monitoring an output of a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer to detect a predetermined condition associated with the first data stream;
providing a trigger signal in response to detecting the predetermined condition associated with the first data stream; and
providing the selection signal in a second state to switch the input to the PHY device from the first data stream to the second data stream to be output from the multiplexer, wherein the first data stream and the second data stream correspond to one of a plurality of MAC transmit signals provided to the PHY device from a media access control (MAC) device or one of a plurality of PHY receive signals provided to the PHY device from a backplane to which the PHY device is connected.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
replacing data at the output of the FIFO buffer with dummy data in response to the trigger signal;
monitoring the output of the FIFO buffer to detect a beginning of the second data stream; and
deactivating the trigger signal to provide the second data stream from an input associated with the PHY device to be output from the multiplexer in response to detecting the beginning of the second data stream at the output of the FIFO buffer.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein monitoring the output of the FIFO buffer comprises monitoring the output of the FIFO buffer to detect an end of a packet associated with the first data stream.

15. A crosspoint routing system comprising a physical link (PHY) device, the PHY device comprising:
a media access control (MAC) interface comprising a MAC interface output configured to transmit a MAC receive signal corresponding to one of a plurality of MAC transmit signals and a plurality of PHY receive signals to a MAC device via a MAC interface switch, and further comprising a MAC interface input

Assignees

• Texas Instruments Inc

Inventors

• Koh T-Pinn R
• Wang Yilun
• Robertson Maxwell G
• Wente Douglas E

Classifications

• H04L49/351

  for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches · CPC title

• H04L49/557 Primary

  Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance · CPC title