Patent ID: 8891960

Claim:
A method of communicating data between a network device and a data network to which the device is connected via an optical fiber data link, the method comprising: connecting the device to the optical fiber data link; and monitoring the connection during a first interval in the device to detect data communication at a first standard T 1 and not to detect data communication at a second standard T 2 during the first interval, and if no data communication is detected at the first standard T 1 during the first interval, monitoring the connection during a second interval in the device to detect data communication at a second standard T 2 and not to detect data communication at the first standard T 1 during the second interval, and if data communication is detected at the second standard T 2 , establishing data communication between the network device and the data network using the second standard T 2 ; wherein the method further comprises at least one of randomising a timeout period for monitoring the connection and cycling connection monitoring of the device between the first standard T 1 and the second standard T 2 in a random order.