Patent ID: 8621255

Claim:
An energy efficient Ethernet method in a device that supports a plurality of channels, comprising: transitioning by said device from an active mode to a low power mode, said device including a plurality of receivers that are respectively associated with said plurality of channels, and a plurality of timing loops respectively supporting said plurality of channels, said low power mode having each receiver of a first subset of said plurality of channels in a low power state; tracking a frequency estimation error of a clock recovered from a signal received by a receiver that supports one of a second subset of said plurality of channels, the second subset of said plurality of channels remaining in an active state during said low power mode of said device; and applying said frequency estimation error to each timing loop that supports said first subset of said plurality of channels during a quiet period during which each receiver of said first subset of said plurality of channels is in said low power state, wherein said application of said frequency estimation error enables each timing loop that supports said first subset of said plurality of channels to track a phase drift during said quiet period.