Patent ID: 8582437

Claim:
A 100 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer device, comprising: a 100 Gigabit interface that is configured for connection to a 100 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer device, the 100 Gigabit interface being configured for receiving four 25 Gigabit data flows from the 100 Gigabit device; a gearbox having a two to five ratio that enables a production of two 10 Gigabit data flows and two 40 Gigabit data flows for every four 25 Gigabit data flows received over the 100 Gigabit interface, the gearbox being configured to remove data flow markers that were inserted by 100 Gigabit device in data flows contained within the four 25 Gigabit data flows, wherein the data flow markers are inserted as control frames into the data flows periodically at every X 66-bit blocks, the control frames being distinguishable from data frames based on a different synchronization header in the control frames as compared to the data frames; and a plurality of output interfaces, the plurality of output interfaces including a first output interface for a first 10 Gigabit data flow, a second output interface for a second 10 Gigabit data flow, a third output interface for a first 40 Gigabit data flow, and a fourth output interface for a second 40 Gigabit data flow, wherein the first and second 10 Gigabit data flows and the first and second 40 Gigabit data flows are received by the 100 Gigabit Ethernet physical layer device within the four 25 gigabit data flows.