Patent ID: 8588244
Filing Date: 2013-11-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An ingress/egress port for an Ethernet switch comprising: a plurality of Media Access Control (MAC) interfaces, wherein at least one MAC interface is configured to receive/transmit Fast Ethernet (FE) packets, at least one of the MAC interfaces further being configured to receive/transmit Gigabit Ethernet (GE) packets independent of the other plurality of MAC interfaces; a receive module and a transmit module, which are configured respectively to receive both GE and FE packets from, and transmit both GE and FE packets to, all the MAC interfaces; and wherein the ingress/egress port operates as a single GE physical port in a first mode of operation and as more than one FE physical port in a second mode of operation; and wherein at least one MAC interface is associated with a separate buffer configured to store packets as they are received at the respective MAC interface, the receive module being arranged to receive packets from the respective buffers sequentially.