A Gigabit-Backplane Pluggable Interface Module (GPIM) is a network interface card (NIC) that installs in the front slots of the services gateway to provide physical connections to a LAN or a WAN. The GPIM receives incoming packets from a network and transmits outgoing packets to a network. These modules will complement the onboard Ethernet interfaces to extend the types and port counts of network connections for the LAN or WAN.