One embodiment provides a network adapter. The network adapter includes a network adapter controller, a medium access controller (MAC) and a physical layer (PHY) including at least one port. The network adapter further includes optical communication logic to at least one of receive and/or acquire a local alert and generate a local alert message related to the local alert, the local alert message including an alert identifier (ID) and a network adapter ID. The network adapter further includes a first light emitting diode (LED) to convert the local alert message to a corresponding optical local alert message and to transmit the optical local alert message to an optical communication path.