Patent ID: 7394758

Claim:
An Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) hardware device for supporting Ethernet MAC SDH/SONET Automatic Protection Switching (APS) functionality by managing protection from failures and recovery from failures on an Ethernet network, the device comprising: a MAC APS Control sublayer configured to manage APS state on working and protect channels and process a MAC APS control frame stored on the Ethernet MAC hardware device; and a plurality of Ethernet MAC sublayers supporting SDH/SONET APS functionality configured to process a MAC control frame stored on the MAC hardware device for carrying out MAC operations; wherein the Ethernet MAC hardware device is configurable for use with a plurality of different network topologies to manage protection from port failures or link failures and recovery from port failures or link failures on the Ethernet network using the MAC APS Control sublayer and the plurality of Ethernet MAC sublayers; and wherein upon detection of port failures or link failures the MAC APS Control sublayer generates an interrupt to invoke an Ethernet MAC Client APS Controller configured to generate and terminate APS requests on working and protect channels to manage protection from and repair of port failures or link failures on the Ethernet network.