Patent ID: 9537979
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A network adapter comprising: a media access controller (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) circuitry comprising one or more ports, the MAC and PHY circuitry configured to establish a communications link with a network; status logic configured to determine whether at least one of the MAC, the PHY circuitry, or the communications link is not operational; optical communication logic to at least one of receive and/or acquire a local alert and generate a local alert message related to the local alert; and at least one light emitting diode (LED) to convert the local alert message to a corresponding optical local alert message and to transmit the optical local alert message to an optical communication path; wherein the status logic is configured to provide said local alert to the optical communication logic when it determines that at least one of the MAC, the PHY circuitry, or the communications link is not operational.