Patent ID: 7864694
Filing Date: 2011-01-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for monitoring data link quality in a network physical layer device that comprises a digital signal processor, said apparatus comprising: a link quality monitor configured to (i) detect an operational value of each of a plurality of data link parameters of said digital signal processor and (ii) determine when the operational value of at least one of said data link parameters deviates from a preselected range of values for that data link parameter; wherein said plurality of data link parameters comprises a digital equalizer coefficient, a digital adaptive gain control, a digital base line wander, a recovered clock long-term frequency offset, and a recovered clock frequency control; and wherein each of said data link parameters is controlled by multiple control bits in a register, said control bits for each data link parameter comprising a break link bit, a high threshold bit, and a low threshold bit.