Patent ID: 8478982

Claim:
A system comprising: a media access control (MAC) security (MACsec) function block configured to implement MACsec protocols on a network; a physical layer device (PHY) connected to the MACsec function block, the PHY including an interface register configured to store command information for the MACsec function block; a central processing unit (CPU) configured to provide the command information for the MACsec function block to the PHY via a management data input/output (MDIO) bus; wherein the PHY is configured to: execute either a read command or a write command against the MACsec function block based on the command information, receive, from the MACsec function block, a response corresponding to the execution of the read command or write command against the MACsec function block; and provide the response to the CPU via the MDIO bus; wherein the interface register includes at least a command register, an address register and a data register configured to store the command information, wherein the data register comprises two 16 bit registers in the interface register, and wherein the CPU is configured to perform multiple reads or writes for data, associated with the command, that occupies more than 32 bits.