The Agere Systems FW802BF device provides the analog physical layer functions needed to implement a two-port node in a cable-based IEEE 13941995 and IEEE 1394a-2000 network. Each cable port incorporates two differential line transceivers. The transceivers include circuitry to monitor the line conditions as needed for determining connection status, for initialization and arbitration, and for packet reception and transmission. The PHY is designed to interface with a linklayer controller (LLC).