Patent ID: 7551850

Claim:
A method for providing highly available, redundant optical modules using a single network connection in a data processing system, said method comprising the steps of: providing a network adapter card that occupies only one network slot, the network adapter card including a plurality of optical modules and a redundancy controller, wherein the network adapter card communicates with a network utilizing a first optical module in the plurality of optical modules; creating, using the network adapter card, an active module designation for a particular optical module that is currently communicating with the network, whereby the first optical module initially has the active module designation; detecting, using the redundancy controller, a failure of the particular optical module that is currently communicating with the network; responsive to detecting the failure, changing, using the redundancy controller, the active module designation from the first optical module to a second optical module in the plurality of optical modules; verifying, by the redundancy controller, an operational status of each one of the plurality of optical modules by monitoring a transmitter status of each one of the plurality of optical modules and by snooping a data stream received by each one of the plurality of optical modules for network protocol errors; detecting, by the redundancy controller, a removal of one of the plurality of optical modules from the network adapter card by monitoring an optical module ground signal; receiving, by the redundancy controller, an input signal from a system controller that is included on the network adapter card; determining, by the redundancy controller, whether the first optical module or the second optical module is currently designated as the active module; and sending, by the redundancy controller, the input signal to only one of the first optical module or the second optical module that is designated as the active module, wherein the input signal is received by the active module only from the redundancy controller, and still further wherein data signals are transmitted directly between the redundancy controller and the first and second optical modules without being transmitted through another device.