Patent ID: 8570562

Claim:
An image forming apparatus to operate in a plurality of operation modes, the image forming apparatus comprising: a communication interface unit to communicate with a network using a physical layer protocol (PHY); a first control unit including a first Media Access Controller (MAC) to perform Media Access Control for the PHY when the image forming apparatus operates in a normal mode, and to control the image forming apparatus; a second control unit including a second Media Access Controller (MAC) to perform Media Access Control for the PHY when the image forming apparatus operates in a power saving mode; and a switching unit to switch a data path between the PHY, the first MAC, and the second MAC according to the operation mode of the image forming apparatus, wherein when the image forming apparatus is in the normal mode, the switching unit forms a first data path between the PHY and the first MAC, and when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving mode, the switching unit forms a second data path between the PHY and the second MAC, and wherein if a printing job is received through the second data path and the image forming apparatus is operating in the power saving mode, the second data path is switched to the first data path so as to operate the image forming apparatus in the normal mode.