Method and system for a multi-rate gigabit media independent interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-RE46523-E
Application number	US-201213474515-A
Country	US
Kind code	E1
Filing date	May 17, 2012
Priority date	Aug 23, 2006
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed is a UGMII system to interface multirate devices including 10 gigabit per second data exchange rates. Mode selection is enabled to provide for automatic detection and adaptation to any transmit rate including 10M, 100M, 1G, and 10G. Mode selection comprises the negotiation between the UGMII extension sublayers located at the MAC and PHY to select between one of several operational modes including: XGMII communication, GMII encapsulation, Clause 22 MDIO register management and Clause 45 MDIO register management. Selection of UGMII and XGMII operating modes are negotiated between the MAC and PHY using ordered sets to announce and acknowledgement a mode change. In one embodiment 802.3 Clause 46 defined ordered sets are utilized.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A rate adaptive interface configured to interface a MAC media access control (MAC) device of a network device with a PHY physical layer (PHY) device of the network device, the rate adaptive interface comprising:
a rate adaptation media independent interface module in communication with a the MAC device implemented in one or both of circuitry or a processor executing machine readable instructions, the rate adaptation media independent interface module configured to:
receive data at a variable rate selected from 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s, and 1 Gb/s;,
process the data to a fixed rate of 1 Gb/s;,
output the data at a the fixed rate of 1 Gb/s;

an encapsulation/recovery module configured to receive the data at a rate of 1 Gb/s from the rate adaptation module, and encapsulate the data at a rate of 1 Gb/s to generated data at a rate of 10 Gb/s;
a multiplexer configured to receive the data at a rate of 10 Gb/s from the encapsulation/recovery module or to received data from a MAC device at a rate of 10 Gb/s and selectively output data at a rate of 10 Gb/s responsive to a mode selection control signal;
a mode selection module configured to control the multiplexer based on control input from a higher layer device; and
wherein the media independent interface module includes an ordered set generation and detection module in communication with the multiplexer and the mode selection moduleimplemented in one or both of circuitry or a processor executing machine readable instructions, the ordered set generation and detection module configured to detect ordered sets which, wherein the ordered sets (i) announce aoperational mode change wherein the ordered set generation and detection module is in communication with the mode selection modulechanges to all of XGMII communication and GMII encapsulation, (ii) acknowledge the operational mode changes, and (iii) are communicated in-band from the MAC device to the PHY device and from the PHY device to the MAC device.

2. The system rate adaptive interface of claim 1 21, wherein the encapsulation/recovery module is further configured to recover encapsulated data thereby changing the data rate from a 10 G data rate to a 1 G data rate.

3. The system rate adaptive interface of claim 1 21, wherein the mode selection module adjusts the data rate of operation between 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s, or 1 Gb/s.

4. The system rate adaptive interface of claim 1 21, wherein the encapsulation/recovery module is further configured with an input to receive data at a rate of 10 Gb/s and perform recovery thereon to output the data at a rate of 1 Gb/s.

5. A rate adaptive interface for use in a network device, the interface comprising:
A MACa media access control (MAC) device configured to output data from a first port at a variable first rate and from a second port at a second rate;
a rate adaptation media independent interface module, implemented in one or both of circuitry or a processor executing machine readable instructions, and configured received to (i) receive data from the MAC device at the variable first rate and (ii) convert the data at the variable first rate to data at the a second rate;
an encapsulation module configured to receive data at the second rate from the rate adaptation module and convert the data at the second rate to data at a third rate;
a switch configured to interface with the encapsulation module and the MAC device to receive data at a rate of 10 Gb/s from either the encapsulation module or from the second port of the MAC device and output data at a rate of 10 Gb/s, the switch controlled by a mode selection control signal;
a mode selection module configured to provide the mode selection control signal to the switch to thereby control operation of the switch and
an ordered set generation and detection module, implemented in one or both of circuitry or a processor executing machine readable instructions, and configured to detect ordered sets, wherein the ordered sets (i) determine operational mode changes to all of XGMII communication and GMII encapsulation, (ii) acknowledge the operational mode changes, and (iii) are communicated in-band from the MAC device to a physical layer (PHY) device and from the PHY device to the MAC device.

6. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, further comprising an extension sublayer configured to receive data at a rate of 10 Gb/s from the switch, wherein the extension sublayer extends the distance which the data at a rate of 10 Gb/s may be transmitted.

7. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, further comprising an wherein the ordered set generation and detection module (i) is configured to interface with the switch to detect ordered sets which determine a mode change, wherein the ordered set generation and detection module and (ii) is in communication with the mode selection module.

8. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, wherein the encapsulation module is further configured to recover encapsulated data thereby changing the data rate from a 10 G data rate to a 1 G data rate.

9. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, wherein data at the variable first rate comprises data at a rate of 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s, or 1 Gb/s, and data at the second third rate comprises data at a rate of 1 Gb/s, and data at the third second rate comprises data at a rate of 10 Gb/s.

10. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, wherein data at the third second rate has a format that is different than the data at the second third rate.

11. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, wherein the switch comprises a multiplexer.

12. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, further comprising a the PHY Device device, and wherein the PHY device is configured to receive data at a rate of 10 Gb/s from the switch.

13. The rate adaptive interface of claim 5 31, wherein the first port and the second port comprise input/output ports and the switch is configured to receive and transmit data to either of the second port of the MAC device or the encapsulation module.

14. A method for interfacing a multirate MAC media access control (MAC) device in a network communication device with a PHY physical layer (PHY) device in a the network communication device, the method comprising:
outputting unprocessed data from the multirate MAC device at a variable rate to a rate adaptation media independent interface module or at a first fixed rate to a multiplexer, the media independent interface module implemented in one or both of circuitry or a processor executing machine readable instructions;
processing the data at the rate adaptation media independent interface module to upconvert the data at a variable rate to data at a second first fixed rate;
processing the data at the second fixed rate with an encapsulation module to generate processed data at the first fixed rate;
receiving, at a multiplexer, the unprocessed data from the MAC device at the first fixed rate or the processed data at the first fixed rate;
receiving, at the multiplexer, a mode selection signal and responsive to the mode selection signal, outputting from the multiplexer the unprocessed data at the first rate or the processed data at the first rate
detecting, with an ordered set generation and detection module of the media independent interface module, ordered sets, wherein the ordered sets (i) determine operational mode change to all of XGMII communication and GMII encapsulation, (ii) acknowledge the operational mode changes, and (iii) are communicated in-band from the multirate MAC device to the PHY device and from the PHY device to the multirate MAC device.

15. The method of claim 14 41, where

Assignees

• Mcclellan Brett A
• Marvell Int Ltd

Inventors

• Mcclellan Brett A

Classifications

• H04L47/10

  Flow control; Congestion control · CPC title

• H04L27/0008 Primary

  arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation (negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453) · CPC title

• H04J3/247

  ATM or packet multiplexing · CPC title

• H04L2212/00

  Encapsulation of packets · CPC title

• H04L47/22

  Traffic shaping · CPC title