Patent ID: 7327754

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a transmit module for communicating with an external link partner, said transmit module including a clock for timing output data to said external link partner; a receive module operatively coupled to said transmit module, said receive module being capable of receiving incoming data in a bit stream from said external link partner while operating in link suspend mode, said link suspend mode including the transmission of at least one Link Suspend Packet (LSP) between periods of Silent Line State (SLS), said at least one LSP comprising an unscrambled preamble, a scrambled IDLE and a scrambled termination portion, said unscrambled preamble including at least one sequence of symbols, said receive module configured to acquire the clock phase of incoming data within the time duration of said at least one unscrambled preamble sequence of symbols and lock to the clock of said transmit module in the absence of incoming data.