This object reflects the operational mode of the main ring. The ring is either in 'normal' or some error state. In this list the highest numbered error 'wins'. The meaning of the various states is as follows:

beacon: This is determined by listening for beacon frames on the network. soft-error: This indicates a high rate of soft errors with respect to the amount of traffic on the ring. For this state to appear requires that the device be able to monitor this error rate. fault: This device has detected a serious ring fault. The fault may have been patched by this device looping a main ring onto a backup ring. This state is used to indicate that the ring is in error and that the topology of the ring, as reported by any station on the ring, is NOT a reliable reflection of the normal topology.

If a logical device is incapable of determining the state of the ring, this parameter will have value 'notAvailable'.