TWI443986B - Low - power high - speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter - Google Patents

Description

Low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter

The present invention relates to the design of a regional Ethernet physical layer transmitter, and more particularly to a low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter.

With the rapid development of network applications, Ethernet has become the most widely used enterprise communication standard in the world. However, the network equipment used in enterprises must be processed and operated in addition to the large amount of data transmission. In addition, even when the transmission traffic is small, it is necessary to continuously communicate with each terminal and the external network to confirm the network condition, so the power consumption of the network device is quite high. Based on the world trend of power saving and energy saving, IEEE announced the IEEE 802.3az standard in 2010 to meet the world's low power consumption requirements for network equipment.

The IEEE 802.3az-compliant low-power, high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter (PHY) can be switched to a low-power mode. The low-power mode temporarily stops transmitting signals and periodically wakes up the high-speed area with idle signals. Ethernet, so it can effectively reduce the power consumption of network devices. However, the implementation of this method will inevitably produce a certain time delay, while the traditional media access controller (MAC) does not have the function of time delay. Therefore, the IEEE 802.3az-compliant low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmission If the device is to operate in a low-power mode, it can only be used with a media access controller that complies with the IEEE 802.3az standard.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram showing the transmission of a conventional low-power high-speed area Ethernet. As shown in Figure 1, the low-power physical layer transmitters 12a and 12b conforming to the IEEE 802.3az standard are each compliant with the IEEE 802.3az standard. The low power medium access controllers 11a, 11b can perform the operation of the low power mode. The low-power media access controllers 11a, 11b delay the transmission of the packets and wait until the low-power physical layer transmitters 12a, 12b resume normal operation, and the delay time is fixed.

Among them, the low-power medium access controllers 11a and 11b conforming to the IEEE 802.3az standard are used to control the delay time and switch the operation mode. When it is desired to enter the low power mode, the low power medium access controllers 11a, 11b transmit a low power idle time signal to the low power physical layer transmitters 12a, 12b, the low power physical layer transmitter 12a, 12b receives the low power idle time signal and enters the low power mode. When the normal power consumption mode is to be restored, the low power medium access controllers 11a, 11b transmit a wait time normal idle signal to the low power physical layer transmitters 12a, 12b; when the waiting time is over, the low power consumption After the physical layer transmitters 12a, 12b resume normal operation, the packets are transmitted.

However, since the transmission of data requires a delay, if any of the area Ethernet physical layer transmitters or media access controllers used does not have the IEEE 802.3az compliant function, the low power mode cannot be performed. Can only work under normal power mode.

In view of the above, the conventional media access controller cannot perform the low power mode in combination with the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter. If the user wants to update the originally used network device, When the network equipment that meets the power saving, energy-saving, and low-power standards is compatible, the cost of establishing the system is quite high.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a low power consumption high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter that can be used with a conventional media access controller to comply with other power saving, low power consumption standards. Network devices are compatible.

The technical means adopted by the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art provides a low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter for connecting to a media access controller and a low power entity layer. a transmitter for transmitting a packet therebetween; the low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter includes a clock pause circuit, and a TX buffer circuit, wherein the clock pause circuit is configured to suspend TX_CLK signal output, TX buffer The device circuit is configured to temporarily store the packet sent by the media access controller.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter is compliant with the IEEE 802.3az standard.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, when the media access controller disables the TX_EN signal, the low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter switches to a low power mode.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the media access controller activates the TX_EN signal, the clock pause circuit suspends the TX_CLK signal output, and the TX buffer circuit temporarily stores the packet transmitted by the media access controller. The low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter switches to a normal power consumption mode; the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter recovers the TX_CLK signal output to transmit data after a waiting time.

The low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter of the present invention can be used with a conventional media access controller, that is, the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter of the present invention can make the traditional The media access controller is compatible with the IEEE 802.3az standard. For the user, the traditional medium access controller already provided with the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter of the present invention can be implemented in the low-power mode conforming to the IEEE 802.3az standard. Therefore, the present invention can effectively save the cost of system establishment.

The specific embodiments of the present invention will be further described by the following examples and the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram showing the architecture of the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 of the present invention is connected to a media access controller 13 and a low-power physical layer transmitter 12c for media storage. The packet is transferred between the controller 13 and a low-power medium access controller 11c connected to the low-power physical layer transmitter 12c, where the media access controller 13 is a conventional media access control. It does not have the ability to comply with the IEEE 802.3az standard.

The low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 includes a clock pause circuit 21 and a TX buffer circuit 22, the clock pause circuit 21 is used to suspend the TX_CLK signal output, and the TX buffer circuit 22 is used for temporary storage. The packet sent by the media access controller 13.

Please also refer to FIG. 3, which shows the low power consumption high speed area B of the present invention. Flow chart of the operation of the network entity layer transmitter 2. When the media access controller 13 no longer transmits the packet, the media access controller 13 disables the TX_EN signal (step S1), and the low power high speed zone Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 switches to the low power mode (step S2).

When the media access controller 13 wants to transmit a packet, the media access controller 13 activates the TX_EN signal (step S3); the clock pause circuit 21 suspends the TX_CLK signal output, and the TX buffer circuit 22 temporarily stores the media access controller 13 The transmitted packet, the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 switches to the normal power consumption mode (step S4); the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 is completed after a waiting time Switching (step S5), when the handover is completed, the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter 2 returns to normal operation, which restores the TX_CLK signal output, and starts transmitting the data packet (step S6).

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter provided by the present invention has industrial utilization value, and therefore the present invention has met the requirements of the patent. The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make other various improvements according to the above description, but these changes still belong to the inventive spirit of the present invention and the following definitions. In the scope of patents.

11a‧‧‧Low-Power Media Access Controller

11b‧‧‧Low-Power Media Access Controller

11c‧‧‧Low-Power Media Access Controller

12a‧‧‧Low-power physical layer transmitter

12b‧‧‧Low-power physical layer transmitter

12c‧‧‧Low-power physical layer transmitter

13‧‧‧Media Access Controller

2‧‧‧Low-Power High-Speed Area Ethernet Physical Layer Transmitter

21‧‧‧clock pause circuit

22‧‧‧TX buffer circuit

S1-S6‧‧‧ steps

1 is a schematic diagram showing the transmission of a conventional low-power high-speed area Ethernet; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the architecture of the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter of the present invention; Low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmission of the present invention Flow chart of the operation of the device.

11c‧‧‧Low-Power Media Access Controller

12c‧‧‧Low-power physical layer transmitter

13‧‧‧Media Access Controller

2‧‧‧Low-Power High-Speed Area Ethernet Physical Layer Transmitter

21‧‧‧clock pause circuit

22‧‧‧TX buffer circuit

Claims (3)

A low-power, high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter for connecting to a media access controller and a low-power physical layer transmitter for transmitting packets therebetween, wherein the low-power high-speed area The network physical layer transmitter conforms to the IEEE 802.3az standard, and the medium access controller does not have the capability to comply with the IEEE 802.3az standard. The low power high speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter includes: a clock pause circuit It is used to suspend the TX_CLK signal output; a TX buffer circuit is used to temporarily store the packet sent by the media access controller. The low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter according to claim 1, wherein when the media access controller disables the TX_EN signal, the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer The transmitter switches to a low power mode. The low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter according to claim 1, wherein the clock suspension circuit suspends the TX_CLK signal output when the media access controller activates the TX_EN signal, the TX The buffer circuit temporarily stores the packet transmitted by the media access controller, and the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmitter switches to a normal power consumption mode; the low-power high-speed area Ethernet physical layer transmits The device restores the TX_CLK signal output to transmit data after a waiting time.