Patent ID: 8321708

Claim:
A method of interfacing physical layer (PHY) control with media access control (MAC), comprising: signaling, by an interface, to the PHY control to operate in a low-power mode when the MAC is detected to be transmitting idle patterns; detecting, by the interface, when the MAC transitions from transmitting the idle patterns to transmitting data, comprising detecting idle patterns occurring above a threshold percentage of time over a period of time, and signaling to the PHY control to operate in the low-power mode; when the transition is detected, signaling, by the interface, to the PHY control to transition to a wake up mode; buffering data from the MAC while the PHY control is in the wake up mode; providing, by the interface, buffered data to the PHY control after the PHY control has completed the wake up mode; and adjusting a variable latency of data propagating from the MAC to the PHY, by the interface, by selecting a size of a variable buffering queue of the buffering data from the MAC based on how long it takes the PHY control to reactivate after de-activation.