Patent ID: 8774016

Claim:
A network device comprising: a physical layer transceiver configured to receive incoming data on a data link at an input clock rate and to store the incoming data in a buffer at the input clock rate, the physical layer transceiver comprising a Media Independent Interface (MII) controller configured to read out the incoming data stored in the buffer based on a buffer read clock being a spread spectrum clock having a first clock spreading factor and to transmit the incoming data over a MII bus based on a MII clock, the MII clock being a spread spectrum clock having a second clock spreading factor different from the first clock spreading factor; and a Media Access Control (MAC) device configured to receive incoming data from the physical layer transceiver over the MII bus, the incoming data being clocked by the spread spectrum MII clock; wherein the physical layer transceiver is configured to communicate with the MAC device over the MII bus using the Media Independent Interface controller to interface with the MII bus, the Media Independent Interface controller being configured to process and transmit incoming data to the MAC device, the incoming data being transmitted from the MII controller to the MAC device using the spread spectrum MII clock.