Free air optical interconnect beacon mode

An apparatus comprising:

• a laser emitter configured to transmit laser energy across an air gap to a separate device;
• a photodiode configured to detect laser energy received across the air gap from the separate device;
• and
• logic circuitry configured to initiate recurrent transmission of a laser pulse by the laser emitter;
• and end the recurrent transmission in response to detecting laser energy received by the photodiode from the separate device.

An apparatus comprising:

• a laser emitter configured to transmit laser energy across an air gap to a separate device;
• a photodiode configured to detect laser energy received across the air gap from the separate device;
• and
• logic circuitry configured to initiate transmission of pulses of laser energy by the laser emitter according to a duplex communication protocol in response to detection of laser energy by the photodiode.

An apparatus comprising an optical interface, the optical interface including:

• an optical interface peripheral side including a first laser emitter;
• a first photodiode;
• and peripheral side logic circuitry, wherein the peripheral side logic circuitry is configured to initiate recurrent transmission of a laser pulse by the first laser emitter;
• and
• an optical interface host side separated from the optical interface peripheral side by an air space, the optical interface host side including:
• a second laser emitter;
• a second photodiode;
• and host side logic circuitry, wherein the second photodiode is configured to detect the laser pulse transmitted by the first laser emitter, and wherein the host side logic circuitry is configured to initiate transmission of pulses of laser energy by the second laser emitter according to a duplex communication protocol in response to detection of the laser pulse by the second photodiode.