System and method for processing wake-up signals in a network

A system for processing wake-up signals during a sleep mode of a computer in a communications network to wake up sleeping components of the computer, the system comprising:

• an extended PHY (physical layer) device for receiving wake-up signals from a network medium and generating a standardized wake-up packet based on the wake-up signals, the wake-up signals being non-packet based signals;
• and
• a MAC (media access controller) device, coupled to the extended PHY device, for receiving the standardized wake-up packet and generating a wake-up notification signal in response to the standardized wake-up packet to wake up the sleeping components.

An extended PHY (physical layer) device for use in a network system, the extended PHY device being capable of receiving wake-up signals from a network medium during a sleep mode of a computer in the network system, converting the wake-up signals into an additionally-encoded data packet, and generating a standardized wake-up packet based on the additionally-encoded data packet, the standardized wake-up packet containing wake-up data for waking up sleeping components of the computer.

An extended PHY (physical layer) device for use in a network system, the extended PHY device being capable of receiving non-packet based wake-up signals from a network medium during a sleep mode of a computer in the network system, and generating a standardized wake-up packet based on the wake-up signals, the standardized wake-up packet containing wake-up data for waking up sleeping components of the computer.