Patent ID: 7889988

Claim:
An optical transmission apparatus to which an optical module having optical module information stored therein is attachable, the optical module information being manufacturing information about the optical module, comprising: a certification rank table configured to list, with respect to each of a plurality of optical modules, the optical module information regarding an optical module and a rank indicative of a range of guarantee for the corresponding optical module, the rank providing an indication of the corresponding optical module's quality rank in a ranking in which optical modules are arranged according to how likely the optical modules are to properly operate; and a ranking unit configured to search in the certification rank table for optical module information identical to the optical module information stored in an optical module attached to the optical transmission apparatus so as to retrieve, from the certification rank table, a rank associated with the optical module information found by the search, and to determine whether the optical module is usable, wherein the retrieved rank is reported to a network apparatus in exterior of the apparatus for checking of the rank and a determination of whether a test process is to be performed.