Patent ID: 7792425

Claim:
A transceiver for transmitting diagnostic and/or configuration data, the transceiver comprising: a signal power source adapted to produce an outgoing physical layer signal for transmission across a high-speed data interface that is configured to transmit optical data; an on transceiver high-speed data modulator that is coupled to the signal power source wherein the signal power source is configured to modulate the outgoing physical layer signal with a high-speed data signal received from the high-speed data modulator; an out-of-band data modulator that is coupled to the signal power source wherein the signal power source is configured to modulate the first physical layer signal in response to out-of-band diagnostic and/or configuration data received from the out-of-band data modulator wherein modulation by the signal power source produces a double modulated signal as the outgoing physical layer signal including high-speed data and out-of-band data; and a controller configured to generate information regarding the transceiver and to receive host device information from a first host device externally coupled to the transceiver over a low-speed standard bus that is different than the high speed data interface, the low-speed standard bus being a bus for electrical signals, the controller further configured to provide the controller generated information and the host device information to the out-of-band modulator to be modulated as at least some of the out-of band data; wherein the transceiver is configured to provide the outgoing physical layer signal including the high-speed data and the out-of-band data that includes the host device information received from the first host device and the transceiver information to a second host device or a second transceiver that is different from the first host device or the transceiver.