Patent ID: 8514923

Claim:
An Ethernet receiver, comprising: a slicer configured to perform slicing on a received signal according to at least two threshold values to generate a slicer output with multiple levels, wherein the slicer output comprises a zero-crossing-level signal output, and the zero-crossing-level signal output is generated by the slicer when the received signal is between the two threshold values; a medium dependent interface (MDI) sublayer configured to receive the slicer output and obtain a data symbol; and a threshold regulator operatively coupled to the MDI sublayer; wherein the threshold regulator is configured to calculate a zero-cross length of the slicer output according to the zero-crossing-level signal output whereby a signal decay of the received signal is determined by the threshold regulator, such that the threshold regulator adaptively adjusts the threshold values according to the zero-cross length so as to make the threshold values vary with the signal decay of the received signal.