A multilane communication device and methods for using the multilane communication device. In one embodiment, a physical coding sub-layer module comprising includes multiple data transfer lanes in a port of a multi-lane Ethernet switch for transferring blocks of data between devices in the port. The physical coding sub-layer module further includes a synchronization marker generator for generating synchronization markers to be periodically transmitted over the multiple data transfer lanes. The physical coding sub-layer module further includes a data marker module configured to generate at least two data marker blocks from a respective portion of a synchronization marker and a respective portion of a block of data, and to provide the at least two data marker blocks to respective first and second ones of the multiple of data transfer lanes.