Ethernet Transceiver with PHY-Level Signal-Loss Detector
AssigneeMarvell World Trade Ltd.
InventorXing Wu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An Ethernet transceiver includes physical-layer (PHY) circuitry and a signal-loss detector. The PHY circuitry is configured to receive a signal from a peer transceiver, to process the received signal in a series of digital PHY-level processing operations, and to output the processed signal for Medium Access Control (MAC) processing. The signal-loss detector is configured to receive, from the PHY circuitry, a digital version of the received signal, and to detect a signal-loss event based on an amplitude of the digital version of the received signal.
Claims23
An Ethernet transceiver, comprising:
- physical-layer (PHY) circuitry, configured to receive from a peer transceiver a signal that is known, in absence of signal-loss, to comprise no more than a predefined number of consecutive zeros, to process the received signal in a series of digital PHY-level processing operations, and to output the processed signal for Medium Access Control (MAC) processing;
- and
- a signal-loss detector, configured to receive, from the PHY circuitry, a digital version of the received signal, and to detect a signal-loss event based on an amplitude of the digital version of the received signal, by identifying that the digital version of the received signal comprises a sequence of more than the predefined number of consecutive zeros.
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A method for signal-loss detection in an Ethernet transceiver, the method comprising:
- using physical-layer (PHY) circuitry, receiving from a peer transceiver a signal that is known, in absence of signal-loss, to comprise no more than a predefined number of consecutive zeros, processing the received signal in a series of digital PHY-level processing operations, and outputting the processed signal for Medium Access Control (MAC) processing;
- and
- receiving, from the PHY circuitry, a digital version of the received signal, and detecting a signal-loss event based on an amplitude of the digital version of the received signal, by identifying that the digital version of the received signal comprises a sequence of more than the predefined number of consecutive zeros.
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An Ethernet transceiver, comprising:
- physical-layer (PHY) circuitry, configured to receive a signal from a peer transceiver, to process the received signal in a series of digital PHY-level processing operations, the phy-level operations comprising at least an echo canceller configured to cancel echo signals in the received signal followed by an equalizer configured to filter the received signal, the PHY circuitry further configured to output the processed signal for Medium Access Control (MAC) processing;
- and
- a signal-loss detector, which is configured to receive from the PHY circuitry a digital version of the received signal after the echo canceller but before the equalizer, and to detect a signal-loss event based on an amplitude of the digital version of the received signal.
A method for signal-loss detection in an Ethernet transceiver, the method comprising:
- using physical-layer (PHY) circuitry, receiving a signal from a peer transceiver, processing the received signal in a series of digital PHY-level processing operations, the PHY-level processing operations comprising at least canceling echo signals in the received signal followed by filtering the received signal by an equalizer, and outputting the processed signal for Medium Access Control (MAC) processing;
- and
- receiving, from the PHY circuitry, after canceling the echo signals but before the filtering, a digital version of the received signal, and detecting a signal-loss event based on an amplitude of the digital version of the received signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.