Patent ID: 7746768

Claim:
An Ethernet PHY hardware device for supporting Ethernet MAC SDH/SONET Automatic Protection Switching (APS) functionality for managing protection from failures and recovery from failures on an Ethernet network, the device comprising: at least one Ethernet PHY sublayer stored on the Ethernet PHY hardware device configured to monitor working and protect channels and generate an interrupt upon detection of a hard failure or a soft failure; wherein upon detection of port failures or link failures the at least one Ethernet PITY sublayer interfaces with an Ethernet MAC APS Control sublayer or generates the interrupt to invoke an Ethernet MAC Client APS Controller configured to generate and terminate APS requests on working and protect channels to manage protection of working and protect channels from failures and recovery from failures on the Ethernet network; and wherein the Ethernet PHY hardware device is configurable for use with a plurality of different network topologies to manage protection from hard or soft failures and recovery from hard or soft failures on the Ethernet network using the at least one Ethernet PHY sublayer.