Patent ID: 8233477

Claim:
A method of operating a packet network device, the method comprising: operating a plurality of serial channels across an electrical backplane, each serial channel in the plurality linking a serializer on a respective one of a plurality of daughter cards connected to the electrical backplane to a deserializer on a different one of the plurality of daughter cards; maintaining, in a memory, configuration information for a first serial channel from the plurality of serial channels; detecting transmission errors on the first serial channel; and dynamically reconfiguring the packet network device, based on the configuration information, in at least one aspect other than the physical transmit and receive characteristics of the first serial channel, wherein the serializer for the first serial channel resides on a first daughter card from the plurality of daughter cards and the deserializer for the first serial channel resides on a second daughter card, the configuration information identifying a reverse channel from the plurality of serial channels, the reverse channel having a serializer on the second daughter card and a deserializer on the first daughter card, wherein dynamically reconfiguring the packet network device comprises the second daughter card placing instructions on the reverse channel to the first daughter card, the instructions causing the first daughter card to change configuration information of the first serial channel.