Patent ID: 8638814

Claim:
An optical transceiver comprising: a transponder configured to receive a first optical signal propagating in a first direction, the first optical signal comprising a first plurality of data signals, wherein the transponder is further configured to generate a first electrical signal comprising the first plurality of data signals; a first electrical demultiplexer configured to demultiplex the first plurality of data signals in the first electrical signal; a line optics module configured to receive a second optical signal propagating in a second direction, the second optical signal comprising a second plurality of forward error correction wrapped (FEC-wrapped) data signals, wherein the line optics module is further configured to generate a second electrical signal comprising the second plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals; a second electrical demultiplexer configured to demultiplex the second plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals in the second electrical signal; a forward error correction device configured to add forward error correction (FEC) data to the demultiplexed first plurality of data signals to form a first plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals, and configured to correct the demultiplexed second plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals to form a plurality of corrected data signals; a first electrical multiplexer configured to multiplex the first plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals; and a second electrical multiplexer configured to multiplex the plurality of corrected data signals; wherein the line optics module is configured to generate a third optical signal based on the multiplexed first plurality of FEC-wrapped data signals, wherein the transponder is configured to generate a fourth optical signal based on the multiplexed plurality of corrected data signals; wherein at least one of the transponder, the line optics module, and the forward error correction device is a single unit.