Patent ID: 8780927

Claim:
A method of operating a crossbar coupled between a plurality of PHY devices configured to provide physical layer functions according to an Open Systems Interconnection, OSI, model and a plurality of MAC devices configured to provide data link layer functions according to the OSI model, the method comprising: providing first data couplings through the crossbar between the plurality of PHY devices and the plurality of MAC devices during a first time period, wherein providing the first data couplings comprises coupling one of the PHY devices through the crossbar to a first one of the MAC devices during the first time period wherein the crossbar comprises a plurality of independent crossbar planes; and providing second data couplings through the crossbar between the plurality of PHY devices and the plurality of MAC devices during a second time period, wherein the first and second data couplings are different, wherein providing the second data couplings comprises coupling the PHY device through the crossbar to a second one of the MAC devices during the second time period, wherein the first and second MAC devices are different, so that the same PHY device is coupled to the first MAC device during the first time period and to the second MAC device during the second time period, wherein each data coupling between respective ones of the plurality of PHY devices and the plurality of MAC devices during the first time period is provided as a plurality of low data rate links through respective different ones of the independent crossbar planes, and wherein each data coupling between respective ones of the plurality of PHY devices and the plurality of MAC devices during the second time period is provided as a plurality of low data rate links through respective different ones of the independent crossbar planes.