HIGHER DIMENSIONAL CONSTELLATIONS AND INTERLEAVING FOR 10GBASE-T

Systems and methods of processing Ethernet physical layer frames are disclosed. One such system includes processing circuitry operable to map a plurality of bits in an Ethernet media access control (MAC) frame into a plurality of symbols selected from a first multi-dimensional constellation. The first multi-dimensional constellation has a dimension higher than that of a second multi-dimensional constellation defined by IEEE 803.2an. The symbols in the first multi-dimensional constellation have a minimum separation not less than that of the second multi-dimensional constellation. The system also includes second processing circuitry operable to provide noise protection for a plurality of additional bits produced by the mapper as a result of the dimension of the first multi-dimensional constellation being higher than that of the second multi-dimensional constellation.