System and method for providing an Ethernet interface

摘要

An apparatus is provided that includes n communication channels, and m communication media interfaces, and v virtual lanes. V is a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n. An information stream is transferred into data and alignment blocks striped across all of the v virtual lanes, the blocks being communicated from the virtual lanes onto the communication channels. The blocks are received on the communication channels. Each of the communication channels transmits a different portion of the blocks striped across all of the v virtual lanes.;In more particular embodiments, v>=n>=m. The communication media interfaces can be electrical and optical. Each of the communication channels can include a SerDes interface operating at least 5 Gigabits per second. Furthermore, each of the m communication media interfaces is configured to transmit a different stream of information over a single optical fiber.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
n electrical communication channels; m optical communication media interfaces; and a plurality of muxes configured to:
transform an information stream into v virtual lanes to be carried over the n electrical communication channels and the m optical communication media interfaces, each virtual lane comprising a plurality of data blocks from the information stream and an alignment block, v being a positive integer multiple of the least common multiple of m and n, v being greater than n and n being greater than m; andcommunicate the virtual lanes to the electrical communication channels for communication to the optical communication media interfaces, at least two virtual lanes communicated on one electrical communication channel.