Avoidance of transcoding or interruption on live load coding exchange in extant connections

The invention relates to an arrangement for connecting an optical waveguide to a microprocessor-controlled electrical appliance having an arithmetic module which is connected to the electrical appliance and has network functionalities for linking the electrical appliance to a network, an interface chip, connected to the arithmetic module, in the form of an integrated circuit chip, and an optical transmission and reception chip which is connected firstly to the interface chip and secondly to the optical waveguide. In order to make such an arrangement particularly efficient, provision is made for the interface chip to have integrated functional modules which provide at least some of the network functionalities.