50 Gb/s Ethernet using serializer/deserializer lanes

A method comprising:

• receiving Ethernet frames on each of a plurality of serializer/deserializer (SERDES) lanes at a M/N Gb/s rate, where M is a value greater than or equal to 10 and N is a number of the SERDES lanes;
• bonding the SERDES lanes into a stream of received Ethernet frames;
• and
• providing data from the bonded stream of Ethernet frames to a MAC port having an M Gb/s rate.

A device comprising

• circuitry configured to
• generate Ethernet frames from data received at a media access control (MAC) interface associated with a port having an M Gb/s link rate, M being a value greater than or equal to 10;
• distribute the Ethernet frames across a group of serializer/deserializer (SERDES) lanes associated with the port, the group having a size N which is greater than 1;
• transmit the distributed Ethernet frames on each of the SERDES lanes at an M/N Gb/s rate;
• receive Ethernet frames on each of the SERDES lanes at a M/N Gb/s rate;
• bond the SERDES lanes into a stream of received Ethernet frames;
• and
• provide data from the bonded stream of Ethernet frames to the MAC port at an M Gb/s rate.