Patent ID: 7660893

Claim:
A method for monitoring and instantly identifying faults in a data communication cable within a computer network, the data communication cable comprising a cable medium, a cable insulation, and a fault monitoring system, wherein the fault monitoring system comprises a sensor, a fault monitoring program, a reference data traffic pattern storage, a fault indicator, and a power source, the method comprising: establishing a reference data traffic pattern by storing data signals into the reference data traffic pattern storage for a predefined sampling period, wherein data signals are input from the sensor; monitoring for a fault in a data traffic communicated through the cable medium based on a comparison of the data traffic and the reference data traffic pattern; activating the fault indicator to notify users that the fault has been detected in response to said monitoring; checking for a recovery of the data traffic subsequent to said activating for a predefined recovery period; and iteratively looping back to said monitoring, said activating, and said checking, wherein said establishing, said monitoring, said activating, said checking and said iterative looping are performed by the fault monitoring program that runs on a computer system that is part of the fault monitoring system of the data communication cable, wherein the sensor of the fault monitoring system transmits data signals communicated through the cable medium to the fault monitoring program, wherein the fault indicator emits audio, visual, or data signals outside of the cable insulation only when the fault indicator is activated.