Patent ID: 7860399

Claim:
An optical communication system capable of data link validation, the system comprising: first and second optical transceiver modules each including a transmitter optical subassembly and a receiver optical subassembly and being operably connected to one another, wherein: the transmitter optical subassembly of the first optical transceiver module is configured for bidirectional optical communication with the receiver optical subassembly of the second optical transceiver module, the transmitter optical subassembly of the first optical transceiver being configured to transmit a first validation optical signal to the receiver optical subassembly of the second optical transceiver module, wherein the receiver optical subassembly of the second optical transceiver is configured to return a second validation optical signal to the transmitter optical subassembly of the first optical transceiver module after receiving the first validation optical signal so as to permit at least one link indicator to be asserted with at least one of the first and second optical transceiver modules, wherein the transmitter optical subassembly of the first optical transceiver module is configured to transmit data to the receiver optical subassembly of the second optical transceiver and the transmitter optical subassembly of the second optical transceiver module is configured to transmit data to the receiver optical subassembly of the first optical transceiver module.