Patent ID: 7889658

Claim:
A method, performed in, by or for a network switch, of transferring overhead data from a sender to a receiver over a serial interface comprising: transferring payload from the sender to the receiver over the serial interface, the payload transfer having a throughput; transferring control data from the sender to the receiver over a plurality of data paths of the serial interface, the control data comprising data directly attributable to transporting the payload from the sender to the receiver; and transferring overhead data from the sender to the receiver over the plurality of data paths of the serial interface, the overhead data comprising data that is neither payload nor directly attributable to transporting the payload from the sender to the receiver, wherein overhead data is transferred in either of two modes: in a first mode the control data is transferred in a first time period and the overhead data is transferred in a second time period on a first data path of the plurality of data paths, and the payload is transferred concurrently on a second data path of the plurality of data paths during the first and the second time period, and in a second mode the overhead data is transferred over one of the plurality of data paths while the one of the plurality of data paths is idle, wherein the overhead data is transferred independently of the payload, wherein the overhead data comprises flow control data and mirrored packet data.