Configurable dispersion compensation in a pluggable optical transceiver

A network computing device, comprising:

• a computer processor;
• a host management interface for communicating with an industry-standard small form factor pluggable optical transceiver (POT) with a plurality of dispersion compensation modules included therein, the plurality of dispersion compensation modules comprising both an electrical dispersion compensation module and an optical dispersion compensation module;
• the computer processor configured to:
• receive a notification of a link failure in an intensity-modulated direct-detection (IMDD) optical network which requires transitioning data communications from a first optical path of the IMDD optical network having a first chromatic dispersion characteristic to a second optical path of the IMDD optical network having a second chromatic dispersion characteristic different from the first chromatic dispersion characteristic;
• determine a second set of parameters to control at least one compensation module of said POT to compensate for the effects of chromatic dispersion in the second optical path, the second set of parameters different from a first set of parameters used to control the at least one compensation module to compensate for the effects of chromatic dispersion in the first optical path;
• and
• communicate the second set of parameters to the POT through the host management interface to reconfigure the POT to use the second set of parameters in place of the first set of parameters for dispersion compensation;
• wherein the POT is configured to automatically determine at least one of the first and second set of parameters;
• and
• wherein the computer processor is configured to provide seed values to the POT to facilitate automatically determining the second set of parameters, the seed values based on a known length of the second optical fiber or a known distance between a first POT and a second POT.

A method for controlling dispersion compensation, comprising:

• selecting at least one dispersion compensation module of a plurality of dispersion compensation modules included within an industry-standard small form factor pluggable optical transceiver (POT) to be initialized, wherein the plurality of dispersion compensation modules comprise both an electrical dispersion compensation module and an optical dispersion compensation module;
• causing a first set of parameters to control the selected at least one dispersion compensation module to compensate for the effects of chromatic dispersion in a first optical path having a first chromatic dispersion characteristic;
• receiving by a host network computing device a notification of a link failure in an optical network which requires transitioning data communications from the first optical path to a second optical path having a second chromatic dispersion characteristic different from the first chromatic dispersion characteristic;
• determining by the host network computing device a second set of parameters different from the first set of parameters to control the at least one dispersion compensation module to compensate for the effects of chromatic dispersion in the second optical path;
• and
• using the host network computing device to communicate with the POT through a host management interface to reconfigure the POT to use the second set of parameters in place of the first set of parameters for dispersion compensation;
• wherein the POT is configured to automatically determine at least one of the first and second set of parameters;
• wherein the host network computing device obtains the second set of parameters from the POT after second set of parameters have been automatically determined by the POT and stores the at least one set of parameters that have been obtained in a data store;
• and
• wherein determining, by the host network computing device, the second set of parameters comprises:
• determining, by the POT, the second set of parameters by:
• transmitting a predetermined data pattern to a second POT;
• receiving a link quality report comprising an evaluation of the predetermined data pattern by the second POT;
• and
• in response to the link quality report indicating an unacceptable link quality, performing a fine adjustment to one or more of the second parameters;
• and
• obtaining, by the host network computing device, the second set of parameters from the POT after the POT determined the second set of parameters.