ZyXEL Communications PLA-407 User Manual

Chapter 6 The OS X Configuration Utility

PLA-407 User’s Guide

Use the Link Info screen to find out more information on the connection between 
two Powerline adapters on your Powerline network. The link information screen 
shows the MAC addresses of connected Powerline adapters and statistics on the 
links. 

Figure 27   Link Information 

The following table describes the labels in this screen. 

Table 11   Link Information

Link Characteristics
Source Address

This is the MAC address of the local Powerline adapter. The local 
Powerline adapter is the one connected directly to your 
computer. A MAC address is a number that uniquely identifies a 
device in a network.

Destination Address

This is the MAC address of a remote Powerline adapter. A 
remote Powerline adapter is in the same Powerline network as 
the local Powerline adapter but is not connected directly to your 
computer. 

Show Statistics

Click this button to show detailed link information between the 
local and remote power adapters..

Statistics
Avg. Pre-FEC Bit Error 
Rate

In Powerline networks data is sent in physical blocks (PB). This 
field shows the average percentage of errors in the physical 
blocks received by the destination device from your source 
device before the errors are corrected using FEC (Forward Error 
Correction). Forward Error Correction (FEC) is a system where 
the sender adds redundant data to its transmissions. It allows 
the receiver to correct errors without the need of asking the 
sender to resend the data.

A high error rate may not necessarily result in a poor connection 
as PBs with errors are discarded and the Powerline device 
adjusts the signal to a frequency level where fewer errors occur.