Patent ID: 7881330

Claim:
A method of controlling activation of electronic circuitry of data ports of a communication system, comprising: a first data port detecting a lack of data for transmission to a second data port; at least one of the first data port and a second data port deactivating electronic circuitry of at least one of the first and second data ports; the first and second data ports maintaining synchronization with each other while the electronic circuitry is deactivated by periodically exchanging synchronization test patterns; at least one of the first data port and the second data port transmitting an alert to the other of the first and second data port when data for communication is detected; the other of the first data port and the second data port activating electronic circuitry upon receiving the alert; at least one of the first data port and the second data port transmitting data; wherein data communication between the first data port and the second data port includes a plurality wired connections connected to the first data port and the second data port, and the alert is transmitted over a subset of the plurality of wired connections; further comprising selecting a first alert signal for a master transceiver data port, and selecting a second alert signal for a slave transceiver data port, wherein the first alert signal comprises a series of symbols, and the second alert signal comprises the series of symbols in a reverse order.