Electromagnetic power measurement and reporting

A method to be performed by a receiver optical subassembly for accurately reporting dynamic electromagnetic-radiation power measurements with high resolution, comprising:

• receiving, at a photodiode, a light signal from an optical transmitter, the light signal representative of information;
• generating, at the photodiode, an electrical signal based on the received light signal;
• amplifying, at an adjustable gain amplifier, the electrical signal based on a magnitude of the electrical signal and a resolution zone of an analog to digital converter;
• storing a plurality of gain values corresponding to the amplification of the electrical signal;
• generating, at an analog to digital converter, a plurality of digital samples based on the amplified electrical signal,
• each digital sample of the plurality of digital samples associated with a gain value of the plurality of the gain values;
• selecting, at a power calculation module coupled to the analog to digital converter, one or more calibration factors for each gain value of the plurality of gain values;
• calculating, at the power calculation module coupled to the analog to digital converter, the power of the electromagnetic radiation by applying the one or more calibration factors to the plurality of digital samples;
• formatting, at a power reporting module, the power in units of Decibel-milliwatts (dBm) utilizing a 16-bit scale that ranges from approximately +128.000 dBm to −128.000 dBm with a resolution of 1/256 dBm per count;
• and
• reporting the formatted power using the 16-bit scale for greater reporting resolution.