Patent ID: 11966271
Assignee: MARVELL ASIA PTE LTD
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An Ethernet communication device, comprising:
a Media-Independent Interface (MII), comprising:
one or more data lines for communicating with a neighbor device; and
at least a management line for communicating management information with the neighbor device; and

circuitry, configured to:
exchange Ethernet data frames with the neighbor device over the one or more data lines of the MII, wherein successive data frames are separated in time by an Inter-Packet Gap (IPG) having at least a predefined minimal duration; and
further exchange with the neighbor device, over the one or more data lines of the MII and not over the management line of the MII, during the IPG between Ethernet frames exchanged on the data interface, a wake-up/sleep command that instructs switching between an active mode and a sleep mode.