US Patent 11349704 Physical layer interface with redundant data paths

An illustrative embodiment of a disclosed physical layer interface device includes: a first transmitter and a first receiver for a primary data path; a second transmitter and a second receiver for a secondary data path; a third transmitter and a third receiver for a non-redundant data path; and a multiplexer. The third receiver is coupled to provide a data stream received from the non-redundant data path concurrently to the first and second transmitters, and the multiplexer provides the third transmitter with a selected one of the data stream received via the primary data path and the data stream received via the secondary data path. Disclosed network switch embodiments employ the illustrative physical layer interface to provide internal or external data path redundancy for traffic handled by the network switch.