Intelligent pluggable transceiver stick capable of diagnostic monitoring and optical network management

An optical communication network system, comprising:

• a host device at a first location;
• a network device at a second location remote to the first location;
• and
• an integrated optical transceiver plugged into an interface in the host device, the integrated optical transceiver comprising:
• an optical subassembly configured to produce a first electrical signal in response to a first optical signal received from the network device and to transmit a second optical signal to the network device in response to a second electrical signal, wherein the first optical signal comprises reception signal data, wherein the second optical signal comprises transmission signal data;
• a data processing unit in communication with the optical subassembly, wherein the data processing unit is configured to extract the reception signal data from the first electrical signal and produce the second electrical signal in response to a third electrical signal comprising the transmission signal data, wherein the data processing unit is configured to perform system-layer functions comprising media access control (MAC), Ethernet/ATM switching, or OAM message processing;
• a data path interface in communication with the data processing unit, wherein the data path interface is configured to send the reception data to a host device and receive the third electrical signal comprising the transmission data from the host device;
• a management unit in communication with the optical subassembly and the data processing unit, wherein the management unit is configured to control the data processing unit to perform the system-layer functions;
• and
• a control path interface in communication with the management unit and the host device, wherein the management unit is configured to send physical-layer control data to the data processing unit, wherein the data processing unit is configured to insert the physical-layer control data into the second electrical signal, wherein the second optical signal comprises the physical-layer control data, wherein the network device is configured to access the physical-layer control data stored in the computer memory without assistance from the host device.

An integrated optical transceiver, comprising:

• an optical subassembly configured to produce a first electrical signal in response to a first optical signal and to emit a second optical signal in response to a second electrical signal, wherein the first optical signal comprises reception signal data, wherein the second optical signal comprises transmission signal data;
• a data processing unit in communication with the optical subassembly, wherein the data processing unit is configured to extract the reception signal data from the first electrical signal and produce the second electrical signal in response to a third electrical signal comprising the transmission signal data, wherein the data processing unit is configured to perform system-layer functions comprising media access control (MAC), Ethernet/ATM switching, forward error correction, or OAM message processing;
• a data path interface in communication with the data processing unit, wherein the data path interface is configured to send the reception data to a host device and receive the third electrical signal comprising the transmission data from the host device, wherein the data path interface is in compliance with a standard selected from the group consisting of GBIC, SFF, SFP, XFP, X2, XENPAK, and SFP+;
• a management unit in communication with the optical subassembly and the data processing unit, wherein the management unit is configured to control the data processing unit to perform the system-layer functions;
• a computer memory configured to store a memory map defined in the SFF-8472 document and a memory block outside the memory map, wherein the memory map stores a pointer that defines the location of the memory block in the computer memory, wherein the memory block is configured to store the system-layer control data;
• and
• a control path interface in communication with the management unit and the host device, wherein the control path interface is compatible with a standard selected from the group consisting of Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C), differential serial interface, a serial peripheral interface (SPI), and General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO).