Management Signals for SERDES in LS1021A

[deepaknaiknavar]

Hello,

Is it required to provide Management signals (MDC/MDIO) to the external PHY device for the SGMII interface in LS1021A? I mean does the Serdes interface itself can be used for the configuration PHY chip instead of the MDC/MDIO signals?

[bpe]

SGMII specification provides only for transferring  link status updates
over the SGMII link. Refer to SGMII Spesc, Section "Control Information
Exchanged Between Links". There are no provisions for setting or reading
any PHY register over SGMII. Thus, if you wish to have full control
over your PHY, yes,  you need to connect it to an out-of-band management
interface.

Have a great day,
Platon

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[erdani80]

Probably you could have a look at theTBI registers inside the eTSEC controller.

If you are planning to use a SFP you could also use fixed phy controllers in linux to get a connection.